too long in this place: February 2010

Welcome aboard the Mad Ship Too Long in this Place, for our scenic cruise to the stars via the world of d'illusions.

Passengers are advised that they may disembark at any time by pressing firmly on the emergency escape Xbox at the top right hand of their Xporthole.

For your viewing pleasure & in the interests of sanity, we would like to request that remaining passengers please stow all precious beliefs & treasured logic in the safety deposit box under their seat.
Please note that staff will not be held responsible for the loss of any rationality along the way.

Those passengers who have taken the time to read our brochures (The Southern X-Ross Bow - parts ein und zwei) will hopefully appreciate the relevance of undertaking this journey aboard a sailing vessel.

We thank you for your attention & hope you enjoy your time aboard the MS TLITP (End of recorded message).

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Until recently I thought that the land of New Zealand, where I live & breathe, was a relatively free land.

That was until I started looking under rocks. Then I found a different picture. It was a picture of possession. And it was painted by the corporation formerly known as the British Empire.

An excerpt from the Elizabethan Xmas-box speech (2009);

"The Commonwealth is a successor to the British Empire and brings together a diverse spread of around a third of the world's countries and a quarter of its population ... It is, in lots of ways, the face of the future."

Briefly, because it is boring - "The ... Commonwealth of Nations, [is] an intergovernmental organisation which currently comprises 54 sovereign states ... The current Head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizabeth II. Within the current 54 Commonwealth members, 16 are sometimes described ... as Commonwealth realms, where Elizabeth II serves separately as head of state in her capacity as sovereign."

"Her role as "Head" of the Commonwealth can be perhaps best likened to that of a ceremonial president."

I must admit that the royal tilt to this series came as a surprise to me.

Some months ago while on waiting parental duty, I wandered into a 2nd hand book store. The kindly custodian informed me that all books with a red dot could go out the door at $1 a piece. Thus it was I picked up a couple of semi-ancient books on Queen Elizabeth II with a vague idea that they might come in handy for future research.

Well, they were a bargain!

I know not what royalty entails, but it's high degree of strictured, structured & sutured ritualism, does beg for questioning.

What lies behind the vast requirements of homage & loyalty?

What lies behind it's excessive symbolism?

Why have I found so many royal fingers in so many Kiwi pies?

Here below lies the downunderworld titling of the commonwealthy queen;

"Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith"

& here apparently, is the NZ royal standard - if you can spot NZ please let me know. I must admit to an uneasy concern upon regarding the once-up-on-the-rite wall hanging.

On 6 February 1840, in a place where the waters weep, the Waitangi Treaty was signed by British Crown representatives & Maori chiefs:

"In the English version, Article one signs the rights of sovereignty in New Zealand over to the Queen of England." For your etymological grounding - "sign (v.) c.1300, "to make the sign of the cross"

112 years to the day after making the sign of that cross, a king died & a new queen lived.

Let's back up & dock on one of the biggest days in herstory.

The reason?

To re-sight & see what is perhaps the most amazing coincidence of the 20th century.

On 2 June 1953 ...

... newspaper editors around the world must have achieved simultaneous orgasm ...

... as two meteoric events ejaculated onto their front pages.

For the hard of seeing the above reads;

"2 OF BRITISH TEAM CONQUER EVEREST:
QUEEN GETS NEWS AS CORONATION GIFT:
THRONGS LINE HER PROCESSION ROUTE"
Everest was 'conquered' on May 29, but it took 4 days to achieve mass consciousness.

Sitting open on my desk at the moment is a book with this image ...

The text reads "The crowning moment: Tenzing Norgay on the summit of Everest"

So let's turn up the heat & have a go at re-producing the blaze & craze of fever that was intentionally & internationally, brought to a scorching climax on that Juneish day...

Please bear in mind that the collective humanity of the 1950's bears little resemblance to the zombie collective of today.

"The country was gripped by coronation fever, in those days any royal event was marked by a street party, the time of year allowing, but the Coronation was such a big event, it went unsaid that everyone in the land would hold some kind of celebration. I was nearly fourteen in June 1953, and I was very excited by all these preparations, being nearly fourteen in those days was on a level to being nearly four years old, by today’s standards."

"There must have been about twenty people crowded into this small room waiting for the moment that the Queen was crowned.
Afterwards we had a street party ... I also remember being told that Mount Everest was conquered on this day"

"We were listening live from Fiji. I remember I was 15 years old We were cheering and were dancing in the streets"

"We watched the entire Service in awe ..."

"This day is tied up in my mind with the pride of the Everest conquest"

"I remember being absolutely in awe of this lovely young woman and the pomp and ceremony that surrounded her. I have been a staunch monarchist every since"

"The coronation of the Queen was the first ever to be televised, and was also the world's first major international event to be broadcast on television ... approximately three million spectators gathered in the streets of London, some having camped overnight in their spot to ensure a view of the monarch ...

For those not present to witness the event, more than 200 microphones were stationed along the path and in Westminster Abbey, with 750 commentators broadcasting descriptions in 39 languages; more than twenty million viewers around the world watched the coverage"

"The coronation itself took more than a year to plan. It was a religious ritual, parts of it unchanged for a thousand years. The rite included the wearing of special garments, anointing, and oaths by the nobles to serve the queen, and by the queen to serve her people. She was presented with symbols of dominion: golden spurs, bracelets, a jeweled orb and cross, a coronation ring, two scepters and two ritual swords. In the climactic moment the Archbishop of Canterbury placed St. Edward’s Crown (weighing 5 pounds and encrusted with 440 jewels and semiprecious stones) on Elizabeth’s head. The assembled multitudes inside Westminster Abbey then rose and shouted “God Save the Queen,” trumpets sounded and, miles away at the Tower of London, cannon fired."

Ok enough queening around the place.

I wanted to give you a taster of the colossal mesmerisation that went down on 2 June, 1953. I lost my footing in this article earlier in this week, & it took me a while to work out why. I finally realised that I had made the mistake of putting Queen before people & country.

I realised that in order for this article to move forth, the queen had to move back a few spaces.

She was not amused.

The view from my current window of today looks like this:
In this world of weirdness there are two major groups - sowers & reapers.

The Sowers are those that create in all shapes & forms (& by rights they should benefit from their creations).

However a very snug system has been put in place, which makes the above statement the stuff of foolish fancy.

Instead there are the rapers, whoops sorry, of course I mean 'reapers'. These are the rulers & runners & profiteers of this system. They do not create, they merely channel & absorb & stake their claim upon the creative energy, efforts & end results of the Sowers.

So you see you cannot put them in the lead. They follow & they glean ...

... the untold riches left behind by the creative gods of this world - that's you & me kiddo, I kid you knot.

Yet time & time again we fall blinded before the pomped, ceremonied & glitzied 'framed' faces on the box or big screen.

Or we fall before people whose job title begins with THE definite article...

... you know people with surnames like 'President', 'Prime Minister', 'Queen' & even the rather risqué 'Honourable Member'.

This is why I feel I have to put Edmund Hillary before the Queen. It's also why I feel he was nabbed & squired, by said gleaner, so very promptly after his accession to the throne of the world.

A newly bee-knighted Hillary alongside a Royal Huntsman

"Hillary had no idea he had been knighted until he received an envelope addressed to him with the postnominals KBE written on there – the Prime Minister of NZ had accepted on his behalf!"

Why was it, I wondered, that this Kiwi bloke should have become so thoroughly royally & ritually encrusted during his life?

"Hillary was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) on 6 June 1953"

&

"member of the Order Of New Zealand (ONZ) in 1987; (created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity". It was instituted on 6 February (once again that royal date hoves into view) 1987"

&

"Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) on 22 April 1995" - This is the pinnacle of the honours system of the Untied Kingdom. Membership is restricted to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than twenty-four honourable members.

&

he was also "awarded the Polar Medal for his part in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (awarded by the Sovereign of the United Kingdom ... for extreme human endeavour against the appalling weather and conditions that exist in the Arctic and Antarctic)."

Joining up the four 'ships' in the first two parts of this series, created a cross. It sparkled thoughts of the Southern Cross (or CRUX as it is astronomically known) - it's kind of like THE down-Underworld constellation.

In the starry section of the library I became reacquainted with The Star Mirror by Mark Vidler, a book suggested long ago by a reader that had not connected at the time. This time, the time was rite.

Apollo-geez, but I can't be arsed doing a big review so I've thieved a few commentaries;

"Vidler explores the implications of the alignment, or mirror image, that has appeared between the most brilliant stars in the sky and the highest mountains on our planet. He argues that this parallel was recognised by builders of ancient monuments ...which are aligned under the brightest stars"

... has demonstrated at extensive length that every megalithic monument found throughout the world in ancient civilizations pointed (in their day) to a very bright magnitude star in constellations which are right now above us in our own skies. The fascinating thing is that these bright stars are lined up directly above the tallest mountain peaks in the world"

(Hopefully) you recall that this series started with NZ ships & disasters. I have long wondered about what lies behind such calamities - I just don't see secret societies or dark magicians having the time or intelligence to be the cause of so many well-timed sacrifices. Nor do I see co-incidence.

Yet I can't help feeling something is afoot or astern.

Disaster - " Obsolete An evil influence of a star or planet"

"An unpropitious or baleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent"

"from Italian disastro ... literally 'ill-starred' ... underlying meaning of the word malevolent astral influence"

What a disa-STAR! As Above sew Below.

Have we magnificently underrated the touch of the heavens? Are the stars as intricately connected to us as our breath? Mythology tells us that earth & heaven were once fastened in an extraordinary embrace.

What if mountains act as star resonators? I've often wondered if Mr of Gogh, could see a whole lot better than us.

What if mountains are astral musical scales?

What if the sound or call of the stars, summoned the mountains from the earth?

What if stars & mountains are brothers & sisters?

For the duration of this article let us grant life to Mt Everest.

In days of old she was known as the Third Pole of the Earth. Many westernised men & nations lusted after her. In Nepal she has the name of Chomolungma - Mother Goddess of the World, a markedly different viewing.

Have you ever looked at her common name?

She was X-tened after "Colonel Sir George Everest ... the Welsh Surveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843.

"One of the most stupendous tasks in the history of science, started 200 years ago by William Lambton and completed four decades later by George Everest, resulted in the Great Indian Arc of the Meridian. It also established that the Himalayas constituted a mountain range and Mount Everest was the highest point on the earth."

"In 1865, Mount Everest was named in his honour despite his objections. It was surveyed by his successor, Andrew Waugh." It seems Mr WAR was quite insistent on naming this peak after his (Masonic) predecessor. What's really interessant is the sounding of the Surveyor General's nom-de-plume, for according to John Keay in The Great Arc, Mr Everest pronounced himself EVE-REST.

Hmmm... I'm beginning to get a diferent picture.

Unbeknownst to us heathen mis-interpreters, it seems that all along we have been looking at the great biblical mother of Earth.

I guess the Nepalese must have been having a bloody good laugh.

So lets get outrageously pagan.

We have given life to Mt Everest & along the way we have found our mother Eve, resting atop the world. We wonder why her name was kept in the dark.

Has she been watching us & for how long?

When the fevered eyes of Western domination turned their lustful gaze upon her did she determinedly resist their advances, ruthlessley throwing back the lifeless bodies of charming would-be despoilers?

There was one whom she called & he answered. She possessed his mind & his heart. On his third coming he drew so close he almost touched her. But when she saw that he was not the one she took him in her death grip & clasped him to her for three quarters of a century, echoing that time when earth & sky had once been locked together. On May Day 1999, this mountain Kali finally released her hold & shepherded a group of seekers to 'discover' his body.

" In 1924, two British mountaineers were spotted high on Mt. Everest at about 1PM, only a few hours from the summit. Mists swirled in and lost them to view. It was veteran climber George Mallory and his powerful young companion Andrew Irvine. Both men were using early oxygen equipment, climbing in the last gasp of this, the third expedition to the mountain. The question that remains in every mountaineer’s heart has never been answered: Did either make it to the top before perishing on the descent?"

In the wanderings of my mind upon the slopes of Eve-rest, a picture emerged of so many little men scurrying to attain the climax of this goddess mountain - my picture looked a little like this

I have long been of the unauthorised opinion that the egg within the female is a very living entity that allows entry to the sperm with the corresponding key or song - rather like the password that allows access to your computer or your Swiss bank account. IMHO, the two are like supreme dancing partners.

This is also how I viewed the earth shaking events on top of the world of May 1953.

What I'm suggesting is that Edmund Hillary was correctly encoded for accsession to Eve's resting place. His journey would have been no less strenuous, but his success was assured. He was the second of the team from the ninth English Hunting party to attempt to reach her summit. The first pair were rejected.

"In 1953, under the leadership of John Hunt, the British were given permission to climb Mount Everest ... On May 26, 1953, the first assault party comprising Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans set off for the south summit ... At the south summit they realized that they would not be able to reach the summit owing to lack of time. Wearily, they returned to Camp XIII.

On May 28, the second assault party comprising Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made their bid. Together they set off, establishing Camp IX at 27,900 feet (8503 m) before spending a bitterly cold and desolate night trying to sleep. At 4 a.m., they finally rose and began preparing themselves for the day ahead ... they departed at 6.30 a.m. Climbing steadily, they reached the south summit at 9 a.m. Onward and upwards into the unknown they persevered. As Hillary stated: “I continued hacking steps along the ridge and then up a few more to the right … to my great delight I realized we were on top of Mount Everest and that the whole world spread out below us”. It was 11.30 a.m. on May 29, 1953. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary had reached the highest point on the earth."

Although I'm an in-expert of things alphabetical, mathematical & numerological, I really couldn't miss the glaring name/number/letter surfacings & resurfacings, & suggest they make up part of the magical code that allowed Sir Ed to pass safely by.

First we can create with his name:

Hill-à-Ré ("Ré is the ancient Egyptian sun god") hmmm so Hill of the Sun God - I think this would certainly be acceptable to a Mother Goddess.
The man was of imposing stature too, at 6'5". "The image of the tall, imposing New Zealander, catapulted Hillary into the status of media hero."
Hillary: "The meaning of the name Hillary is 'Cheerful'."

Now compare that with Mallory: "The meaning of the name Mallory is 'Luckless'."

"Tall and classically handsome, Mallory quickly became a "star" among mountaineers."

Hill-à-Ré went to Eve when he was at that most holy age for ascension - 33.

Next we come to the elevenses. I have read that 11:11 is some kind of New Age awakening code, personally I don't have a bloody clue. That being said, the tale of Sir Ed is positively littered with 'legs 11' so I suggest something is afoot. They certainly appear to have a mighty powerful appeal to those in the know (& perhaps somewhere within our benumb(er)ed psyches too). We also recall those very popular little trauma numbers 911 & 11/11/11.

We're gonna get creative here & why not? I'm seeing '11' & 'll' as magical dance partners. Numerologically the letter 'l' has a value of 12 which is then reduced to a single digit (1+2)= 3.
Unless I'm worse at maths than I thought, the appearance of the double 'l' gives the resounding & masonically bee-loved 33. Messrs Mallory & Hillary had remarkably similar name codes n'est-ce pas?

The first team on the Hunting expedition also contained that formula;
"On May 26, 1953, the first assault party comprising Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans set off for the south summit." Bourdillon would die in a climbing accident 3 years later.

I happened upon a book about two NZ mountaineers recently - Messrs Hall & Ball, who had set up the climbing business, Adventure Consultants. Gary Ball died on a mountain in 1993 while Rob Hall was one of the 8 who died on Mt Everest on 11 May 1996.

Hillary arrived on top of the world, with Tenzing Norgay at 11.30am. (no I've not forgotten Mr Norgay, indeed I believe he was a very wisely chosen companion). He was flash knighted by Elizabeth II, 8 days after his crowning achievement.

Edmund Hillary died on 11 January 2008. His funeral took place 11 days later, the very day another knight began his eternal slumber.

I had wondered previously if part of the reason that Eve had allowed Ed to pass was because he was a 'honeyed man' - his profession as a beekeeper being most amenable to any waiting goddess.

The man who ascended to the 33rd degree of the world, was born on 20th July - on his 50th birthday we are told that Apollo 11 landed on top of the moon goddess. They carried a symbolic beekeeper with them too - Buzz Aldrin.

On 29 May, 1953 Edmund Hillary became consort to the Mother Goddess & by Xtension, father to this world. Is it any wonder he was so very promptly knighted by the gleaning queen. His new job title became him very well - Sir Ed or Sired.

In the years following his climb he did in deed become a father figure. His obituary in 2008 read "Sir Edmund Hillary has been mourned in Nepal as a "second father" to the Sherpa people and an honorary son of their mountains and valleys."

There has always been some speculation as to whether Mallory & Irvine did actually make it to the top of Everest. In typical forthright Kiwi style Sir Ed, echoed Mallory's own son (& to my mind the mountain herself) with these words;
""If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain? I am rather inclined to think personally that may be it is quite important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the bottom again."

It's definitely time to round off this segment - sorry just too much info to reach 'closure'. I would like to say that no disrespect is aimed at Edmund Hillary. I'm simply looking at historical possibilities from different angles. If our world is running on an endless loop then 'great' events, may very well be forseen or 'created' at the appropriate time. Heck we may all be following scripts. My personal feeling is that I've had more than enough soap operas & that it's time to sack the script writers.

Actually now that I come to mention it, I am looking for a new job ...

Some headlines to wind (you) up :)

"The Queen and Prince Philip were particularly interested in the News Chronicle of June 2, 1953 - the day of the Coronation - and its coverage of the conquering of Everest under the headline "The crowning glory"."

"The Olympic torch was lit at the top of Mount Everest on Thursday, the crowning moment of the Beijing"

"Establishing the last camp was the crux of our Everest climb."

"In 1969, Elizabeth sent a congratulatory message to the Apollo 11 crew on the first manned lunar landing; the micro-filmed message was left in a metal container on the moon's surface. She later met the crew at Buckingham Palace."

"Apollo 11 Moon Rocks Headed for the Summit of Mt. Everest with Astronaut Climber"

An encore:

This is a rather spectacular grave.

Little old NZ built this whopping great memorial for a Labour Prime Minister, apparently. The words upon the obelisk spell this out.

"THERE IS NO FAME TO RISE ABOVE THE CROWNING HONOUR OF A PEOPLE'S LOVE"

Why highlight The Crowning with big capitals, I wonder? Is't really a monument to a Prime Minister or do the words suggest something a little grander? I know of no other like this in the country & it is on some of the most prized land in Auckland - Bastion Pt, an area of much dispute between Maori & govt when I was growing up.

"Despite some public concern that the memorial was an extravagance in wartime, work was begun by Fletcher Construction in June 1941 and completed by March the following year. The New Zealand Labour Party met the costs of the mausoleum, estimated at £4000."

I found the doubled-up double el in this Masonic line-up most intriguing. My son suggested that they had spelled it wrong at first, but the spacing left for the 'O' suggests they spelled it just rite. If one tipsies up the 'W', one could also find another pair. Bloody 'ell!

There is one other very famous erection in Auckland & none too far away either. It seems this one was called for by the 'Father of Auckland" - he was a man of EL too

Senses on full bollocks alert please!

"Although it was constructed nearly 30 years after Sir John Logan Campbell’s death, it fulfilled the terms expressed in his will and he had reserved money for that purpose. The Obelisk is situated near Campbell’s own grave, but it was not intended to honour him. It was built as a permanent record of his admiration for the achievements and character of the great Maori race. Campbell decided on the idea of an obelisk after admiring them during his travels in Egypt... The obelisk is 33 metres in height"

"The stone obelisk was completed by 1940 – the centennial year of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi"

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Coming soon... Rose White, Star Lion XRoss - Part IV

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Where earth & sky meet - a little rambling

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The CruX of the Matter - Part 3 (& climbing)

Weavers at work

Getting the picture

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