A tale of cowardice...

Where the hell did this one start? Ah yes, I forgot to mention the movie The Four Feathers in my last article about the number '4'.

This 2002 movie starred Heath Ledger & that in itself warrants a second look. The story follows the shock waves created when Harry Faversham, a British Officer withdraws from his regiment before a set to, because he cannot see how fighting half way across the world can be of benefit to Queen & Country. As a result he is labelled a coward & presented fourthwith, with four white feathers from his friends & fiance. All this I must confess, I found by taking the easy route & clicking on the Wikipedia link.

For some strange reason I opted to click on a certain word in that article & was transported in the blink of an eye to a page where no man or woman, in their (programmed) right minds would ever boldly go - to 'cowardice' & there in that shameful link, my eye was caught by a subheading & paragraph I was not expecting -

"Terrorism"

followed by this - "Terrorist acts are often described as cowardly. Ronald Reagan called the 1983 United States Embassy bombing "cowardly"; Bill Clinton called the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing and the 1998 United States embassy bombings "an act of cowardice" and "cowardly," respectively; and George W Bush called the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon "cowardly." Janet Reno also called Timothy McVeigh a "miserable little coward." McVeigh responded, "Coward? This label would make Orwell proud – it is doublethink at its finest"

Having become a shade sceptical of these, cough cough, great leaders I felt inclined to make like a blackbird on the trail of a worm, and see what I could dig up.

So what exactly is cowardice & why is this word so powerful, that a plethora of Presidents evoke it's name in connection with some of the most questionable doings in recent history.

Here are some dictionary definitions for cowardice:
"lack of courage or resolution" "Ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain" "lack of courage; esp., shamefully excessive fear of danger, difficulty, or suffering"

Wiki says this: "Cowardice is a vice that is conventionally viewed as the corruption of prudence, to thwart all courage or bravery." In case you are a ignorant of vice, it is "a practice or habit that is considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society...from the Latin word vitium, meaning "failing or defect". Vice is the opposite of virtue." For a full list of vices click on link & scroll down: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice then off to the confessional quick smart (I'll be joining you).

Returning to the story The Four Feathers we find the sick world that a belief in cowardice generates. Such is it's stigma that those who professed to love Harry Faversham were willing to assign his friendship & love to the rubbish bin because, like all of us, they have been thoroughly schooled in the 'Way of the Warrior.'



Why are heroism & bravery so very important in our world & why is cowardice such a crime. Certainly the more I look it, the more it seems to me that cowardice is a made up word that has no value, except as a foil to the concept of heroism & I've been wondering if we as a society have not been the dead horse that has been well & truly flogged by this ideal.

Heroism is a concept that came from the Greeks (why am I not surprised). It had quite a different meaning to that of the media marketed version that we have today. If you were going to be a hero in ancient Greece you needed to have the determination of today's 'terrorists' because your not very lengthy future consisted of undergoing numerous ordeals followed by death - sorry but you only get hero status when you snuff it - still interested then dial 0800 HERO for an application form.

If you look to the Greek heroes to find role models don't expect to make many friends & don't ever turn your back on one either (unless you have life insurance).







"A hero in Greek mythology & folklore was originally a demi-god, the offspring of a mortal & a deity, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion." from wiki

And from a more 'learned' site: "First and foremost, the ancient Greek hero was a religious figure, a dead person who received cult honours & was expected in return to bring prosperity, especially in the form of fertility of plants (crops) and animals, to the community...The hero who is mortal must suffer & must die. Only after death can the hero receive immortalization in cult & in song...The hero must struggle against the fear of death, in order to achieve the most perfect death. Such a perfect moment must be recorded in song" - I'm guessing here that the lack of this leads to the term 'unsung hero'. The 'Most Perfect Death' sounds a little like a category in the Oscar nominations - perhaps we have the makings of a new reality TV show! Full learned article here if interested http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/nagy/threads/concept_of_hero.html

The lives of the heroes were tied (handcuffed?) to the gods, who like circus trainers do seem to have had them jumping through an awful lot of strategically placed hoops. Like actors, their modern day counterparts, we can view them as a group of physically attractive puppets on short strings enshrined in an arena/film screen while living an apparently golden existence while their audience gazes in awe. Heroes must have an audience/worshippers & remember too that heroes need to die young (just in case that rings a bell or two).

So how do the controllers of a society market the concept of heroism - I mean really, how many of people in the street, are going to jump at the idea of heroic death? It's just not natural.



Much of today's marketing (& I include politics here) works on the principle of 'scare the shit out of the people, & then offer them a solution.' Really clever marketing is also cost effective - so use what already exists but put a fearfully good 'spin' on it. To market a brand new product called Heroism, 'consumers' must be made to believe that a condition exists that it overcomes.

So let's listen to a secretly recorded conversation from a 'Do' at Mt Olympus:



Zeus: "Is it just me or is anyone else getting bored with all this humility & worship crap. I dunno I just feel something is missing from my immortal existence."

A plethora of immortals chime in "Here, here. You go god."

Zeus: "Splendid, I thought you'd see it my way. Well then, here's a little something I came up with earlier." (Sounds of scrolls being unrolled). "Now I haven't got a name for it yet, but I think you're all going to find this very exciting. I propose we create a game of super human chess - with real pieces, err I mean people to play with. These pieces, sorry people will in fact be half gods, which means that we will have to seek out very attractive human women to have sex with. Now Hera, I'm not suggesting that I'd enjoy it, it would be strictly a business arrangement (sounds of snickering in the background).

Hera: (sounding very frosty) "And what makes you think that the humans would pay any attention to these 'pieces', I mean I presume you'll need plenty of humans to use as 'pawns'!"

Zeus: "Ahh, now that's what I'm particularly proud of." (A loud ahem ahem sound in the background) "Well of course I couldn't have come up with this without Hermes help. Our plan is to trick, I mean re-educate the pawns, I mean humans into believing that their instinct for survival is shameful & immoral, & that glorious death is, well... to die for!"

Poseidon: "My god, that's dashed cunning. So what are you going to call this 're-education'?

Zeus: "well umm err"

Unknown god: "Come on Zeus, are you just going to stand there all day yapping- it's your turn to pin the tail on the donkey!"

Zeus: "Hmmm...'tail' you say! ... well why not, they're all blind anyway & it'll be a good 'tale' to tell at parties."

Actually I just made this conversation up - well you can't get onto Mt Olympus unless you've got a 'hero' pass).

Etymologically, the word coward simply means 'tail'. Assumption jumpers leap in a single bound to the conclusion that this refers to 'turning tail' or 'tail between the legs' - despite the fact that the the word turning or between the legs is entirely absent. Checking out tail in the dictionary we find that, as well as the dangly thing common to many animals, it also means to trail behind - if I imagine a crusade type scenario where I am an unwilling conscript (& I would be), I would certainly choose the 'cowardly' position, as movies have taught me that those up front get turned into heroes real fast.

When I first read the story below, I nearly fell into the trap of going aha that's better, the honour of these men has been restored. Another cunning trap. The family of one man spent a lifetime trying to get his name cleared (cleaned?) & it seems they have resolution at last. But hang on a minute, all that's happened is some word shuffling. The actual crime is the murder of these men for for a word that translates as 'tail'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/aug/16/military.immigrationpolicy


Going round in circles by turning cowards into heroes (with the help of war memorials) - here's a 10ft high statue of Private Herbert Burden, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who had lied about his age to join up and was executed for desertion, aged 17. And lest we forget the importance of symbolism "A semi-circle of stakes around the statue follow the seating pattern of a Greek theatre to symbolise "tragedy". "

Here are some Oracle/Media headlines that they made up earlier - a word of caution - beware of that deep pit just ahead of you camouflaged by cleverly sprinkled words:-
"HEROES NOT COWARDS: PARDONS FOR MEN SHOT IN WW1" - "Pardon plea for shell-shocked Somme hero shot for cowardice" - "UK Battle to clear the 'cowards'." - "Fresh call to pardon war 'cowards'."

Here lies the first paragraph of one of these completely objective reports;
"DEFENCE chiefs were last night under renewed pressure to pardon hundreds of soldiers executed for cowardice during the First World War after it emerged that several officers were spared the firing squad for the same offence."
So what did you think - 'bastards' because there's always some who wangle out of things OR did you baulk at the word 'offence'. It seems there's been a change in attitude of the public (that's you & me) "now that it is understood so many deserters were teenage boys and more is known about the psychology of trauma, people take a different attitude." Marvellous so you & I at last understand that in certain very trying circumstances it's ok to be just a little less heroic.

I have, over the course of this year, had cause to look at 'heroes by looking back over WWI. In the process I have been freeing myself from many beliefs that were instilled in me as I grew up. In NZ we have our heroes - the ANZACS (likewise in Australia) - our two nations identities, in many ways, sprang 'fourth' from the epic re-enactment of Troy known as Gallipoli (& afterwards on the Western Front). The pride in these myths is enormous. It does seem to revolve around the willingness of soldiers to 'give their lives'. You will find the term 'gave their lives' on many a war memorial. Those wishing to keep or take back their lives risked being legally murdered by their comrades (I am presuming that anyone reading this has seriously questioned the 'inevitability' of wars of the last hundred years & so).

We may look up to heroes, but I'm not sure that we can love them - it's a bit hard keeping warm in that superhuman shadow they cast.


.................. 'Valour & Cowardice' ....................

I find however that I can & do willingly like 'cowards' - who doesn't love two of the greatest cowards in TV history - I'll let one of my favourite comedians, Eddie Izzard do the talking;

"Shaggy and Scooby are interesting characters, two of the most major characters in American literature. I think it's fantastic, because they are cowardly characters. They believe in cowardice and sandwiches. Can you think of any in the realm of English-speaking literature, cowardly characters that you identify with? You're with them all the way -"Go, Shaggy! Go, Scooby!" The rest of the guys who drive the van? "Fuck off." Scrappy-Doo - a Magnum. Boom!"


Sorry just had to leave in that last bit for educational purposes - it does show that we love those who have our own 'weaknesses'. The tough, unperturbed (or down-right irritating) characters are just plain forgettable (or shootable).

In the Jacki Chan movie Shanghai Noon, Owen Wilson plays a character I love, because he's completely self interested & does all he can to avoid danger & maintain his own life. I have always enjoyed & believed in characters who value life so much that they actively seek to enjoy it & prolong it.

I'm not sure how long the late Steve Irwin was a TV star, but in his time he turned around a lot of ideas I'd been schooled in regarding dangerous animals & insects. Far from attacking at the drop of a hat, I saw them seek avoidance of confrontation again & again, even at times when I was sure they'd be provoked (well I would have been in their place). I remember seeing many a Western when I was growing up, from them I learned how dangerous snakes were - kill or be killed. Now I am embarrassed by that attitude & while I'd give them a wide berth, I know that many of them are 'cowardly' creatures at heart - they prefer the sensible life-enhancing approach of avoidance to the heroic show-down.

I am a student of the martial art Aikido, our number 1 rule is avoidance. If at all possible avoid confrontation or do the minimum required to get away. The 'heroic' stuff is really a last resort. Aikido means 'the way of harmony' - I wonder if this could be translated to 'the way of the coward' - that's ok by me.

I've also been chatting with my son to get a teenager's view of cowardice - he suggested that it was "the natural attempt to prevent pain & suffering" & I agree. He went Paint-Balling a while back & said that he'd probably have been shot about 17 times for cowardice - I do admire honesty! One method I like to use in my search for truth is to look at those who are most free of programming - young children - to see how they deal with whatever the topic is in question. I do not see heroism anywhere, only a splendid curiosity & thirst for knowledge that seems to drive them ever forwards. They seem to possess in equal measure the ability yell their lungs out & seek protection (run away) when they feel threatened. Nowhere do I see the 'will to self-sacrifice' - all in all a magnificent bunch of cowards.

I think the concept of heorism pulls us away from our powerful human intuition & humour & natural drives, while the concept of cowardice frightens us away from them. Are they perhaps nothing more than the cunning use of words - an ancient & well marketed method for swelling the ranks of willing sacrifices while underminining the natural human desire for enjoyment, self preservation & removal of pain.

Just to finish I have a small story of my own. Last night a couple guys were having quite a set to in the street outside my home. I don't think I've ever heard the 'f' word used so many times in one place. I was a little concerned for the lesser of the two who seemed to be bearing the brunt of the word bashing & wondered what would happen if it got worse & what could I do. I didn't actually want to do anything. I may be a student of Aikido but I prefer the avoidance approach. Anyway I started feeling a bit bad about being frightened by the situation when I remembered what I have have been writng about. I realised that I was feeling bad mostly because I had labelled myself 'cowardly' & the instant I made the connection I smiled & felt much better.

and now some cowardly tails for your viewing pleasure...

A slight delay

I've been working on a new article, but for some reason, possibly under mischeivious gods influence, my article has spat the dummy & is refusing to play ball. Therefore it will take slightly longer than I'd hoped - but will be up in a day or two.

In the meantime I'm sure your thirst for knowledge is being quenched by the many excellent writers in the blogosphere (when the bloody thing plays ball that is!)

May The Fours Be With You

In numerology if a person's life-path (birth number) is four then they must "learn the advantage gained for self through system and order, toward the accomplishing of his/her goals." Excuse me while I gag. I have the dubious honour of having this number as my 'life -path' & have always resented it's plodding feel & lack of adventure, not of course that I live my life by it, but every so often it rears it's orderly head.

Well the little beast has been cropping up a lot lately, so I felt pulled to look closer.

In Ellis Taylor's In these Signs Conquer he devotes a whole chapter to this little number. One point in particular really hit home - how the actual structure of the oft used symbol '4' affects us;

"As you can see this 4-symbol is an upside down cross with a rear diagonal... An upside down cross is a symbol of spiritual death. This cross is also distorted and that has a significant bearing on our thought processing & thinking...This number 4 is not only entirely intellectually focused it is backward looking as well. Another problem with the subliminal motives of this symbol is that it completely engulfs & locks away our emotional and unconscious minds... Number 4 is a box and it will box you in...There is something else about this symbol too. Notice how it stands on one leg. It must be a real effort to keep it's balance that's why this figure 4 is so cantankerous and can be violent as well. It can never move forward...If it tries on only one leg it will topple backwards, being so heavy in the arse area."

The book goes into greater detail & gives Ellis' depiction of an open & balanced way to write this number using only vertical & horizontal strokes, with the horizontal stroke always sitting balanced on the base line. I am reminded of a book I read some time ago about how changing your handwriting can help with changes in your life & indeed when browsing on the Internet I found a whole 'new' therapy - "Graphotherapists have won the support of doctors, teachers and psychologists (I know, I know standard trigger words to make us instantly accept) for success in clearing up mental disturbances in children by changing their handwriting" & "The treatment of personality and character flaws through deliberately made changes in the handwriting, offers a whole new field for the graphologist and subject alike." The point I'm trying to make is simply that the shape of these 'symbols' that we constantly use, affect us - if the shape of your handwriting triggers your subconscious then the symbols we are forced to use & are visually bombarded with daily most certainly do & their shapes are no accident.

Just for fun, last week at work when I was hand writing some numbers I played with changing each one, adding a little something extra without disguising their original shape, it was actually quite hard, so programmed am I to writing them in their 'proper' form. I wonder if it would be therapeutic to do this more often - make the symbol a little more personal perhaps, you know have a bit of fun with them. It makes me think of how little say we've had in the development of well, pretty much everything. The building blocks are provided from the day we're born, we just shuffle them around - perhaps it makes 42 as the 'meaning to Life, Death & the Universe a bit more understandable - all just a matter of learning, writing & being programmed by 'symbols'.

Lets return 4thwith to our topic & see how this number seems to be the foundation upon which our physical world lies.

Sound the great trumpet for our freedom,
Raise the banner for gathering our exiles,
And gather us together from THE FOUR CORNERS OF
THE EARTH
into our own land"
(A prayer chanted thrice daily by religious Jews for nearly 2000 years as they face Jerusalem.)

While not geographically correct, the term 'four corners of the earth has been in use for a very long time & indeed as I've gone snuffling around in the undergrowth it could very well be seen as a clue to the building blocks of our world which seem so often to total four.

Starting with a species with which we are both familiar & completely at at a loss to explain - our human selves, we have four of our very own building blocks - "Four base molecules make up the DNA code: adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine, usually referred to by their first letters A, C, T & G". We have four blood types (A, B, O, AB) - cough, cough, spot our reduction to symbols yet again! Our hearts, which are so sorely tested these days, have four chambers (as do all mammalian hearts).

Step back into history for a day & you could be so much more than just a 'star sign', you could be a 'temperament', of which there were four -sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic.



"Hippocrates (b. ca. 460 B.C.) urged that sine qua non of science: observation. In the course of the studies that merited his becoming known as "the Father of Medicine," he noticed that blood removed from the body separates into four parts: the clear red, a yellowish liquid that rises to the top, the dark liquid that settles to the bottom, and whitish fluid. He and his students, especially his son-in-law, Polybus, took these observations and developed a theory of medicine that was to hold sway in the West and in the Islamic world for thousands of years." Go here & scroll down if you want to see what you are - obviously no one is going to own up to being phlegm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegmatic

Now lets step out doors into those four corners of our world. Which direction are you headed - you've got four cardinal directions to choose from: north, south, east & west. How's the weather with you, which of the four seasons are you experiencing? What time of day is it - which of the four parts of the day are you missing by spending time on the computer - night, morning, afternoon or evening?

The belief in the four elements of fire, earth, air & water goes back to the Greeks & "persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, deeply influencing European thought and culture." The ancient Greek word for element (stoicheion) literally means "letter (of the alphabet)", the basic unit from which a word is formed (hmm ...always we come back to these symbols).



So earth, where we have our home is one of these four elements. "Everything on Earth can be explained in terms of 4 states (phases) of matter-- solid, liquid, gas, and plasma." (I must mention here that I did find a few sites with some 'modern' additions, but just for now lets go with what most people 'believe' - please don't go getting all 'choleric' on me).

Skipping into the Twilight Zone for a second we find that Einstein believed that time was the fourth dimension. It seems there are big sciency debates about that & I'm no scientist so I'm not going there, but much attention is certainly focused on dimension numero four.

Pausing in the Religious Zone, we have the four gospels or 'god spells' - so even he's using those damn symbols! We also find those equestrian harbingers of doom, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I have read that four is "a symbolic number used throughout in the Old Testament" but am not going to check that out as there are limits to what I'll research.

Dipping our toes in a little further: "Again we see the theme of the four rivers in Paradise. There are four Evangelists, chef arch-angels, chef-devils, four Fathers of the Church, Great Prophets. There are four cardinal virtues--prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance. The are four winds from which the One Spirit is said to come." Plus in Revelation: "There four angels standing at the four corners of the Earth, holding back the four winds of the earth (Rev 7:1)." Plus "Four is the number representing the body, with three representing the soul."

And of course who can fo(u)rget the four-pronged Cross, I took a break from this article a little while ago & went for a walk. It's Sunday here & I passed a number of people making their way into churches & it struck me just how strong an image this 'cross' is.

"The Christian cross is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity" - to put it in a nutshell this four sided symbol has the power to bring more than a billion people to their knees!

Switching to a more exotic flavour of religion we have the Egyptians :"Four is the sacred number of Time, measurement of the sun. Four pillars support the vault of heaven. There are four canopic jars placed around the dead at the four corners guarded by the four sons of Horus who are associated with the cardinal points. In the Hermetic it is the divine quaternity. It represents God."

Turning to native Americans now: "As in other cultures, ceremonies and ritual acts are repeated in fours. The Native American cultures have used the number 4 most frequently as in the four cardinal directions. The four winds are depicted by the symbol of the cross and by the symbol of the swastika."

1925 Native American "good fortune" (swastika symbol) quilt. Hidden in storage 70 years because of the Nazi Party's use of the swastika

Peeking round the corner into the Buddhist Zone we have the Four Noble Truths - based around the concept that life is suffering, it didn't really grab me, but go forth and investigate by all means. http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html

Control & religion in all their various camouflaged disguises have never been shy of using what works best & the number 4 does seem to have come in mighty handy:

"The symbolic meanings of the number four are linked to those of the cross and the square. 'almost from prehistoric times, the number four was employed to signify what was solid, what could be touched and felt. Its relationship to the cross (four points) made it an outstanding symbol of wholeness and universality, a symbol which drew all to itself'. where lines of latitude and longitude intersect, they divide the earth into four proportions. throughout the world kings and chieftains have been called 'lord of the four suns'...'lord of the four quarters of the earth'... by which is understood to the extent of their powers both territorially and in terms of total control of their subjects' doings."

And I thought four was boring!

Some more interesting fours-

"A four-letter word is used to describe most swear words in the English language, as most such terms do indeed possess four letters."

"Four is the only number in the English language for which the number of letters in its name is equal to the number itself."

I don't suppose this one is an accident "On many computer keyboards, the "4" key may also be used to type the dollar sign ($)"

"Four suits of playing cards : hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades."

"Four rules : addition, subtraction, multiplication, division."

"Four nations of the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland."

"Four estates : politics, administration, judiciary, journalism. Especially in the expression "Fourth Estate", which means journalism." - and we know the power that wields.

"The Beatles were also known as the 'Fab Four': John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels, the second of these was called The Sign of Four. Totally off the subject, I spotted an interesting 'turn of name' in his first novel A Study in Scarlet - you know how you start questioning all the things you used to love because you keep finding so much that is hidden, well on listening to this first novel not so long ago, I noted that the name of the fated heroine, Lucy Ferrier, sounded remarkably like Lucifer - obviously I may just be being imaginative. A little snippet "On 26th January 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle was initiated into Freemasonry in Phoenix Lodge No. 257 in Southsea, aged 27. Among those present was Dr James Watson, with whom Doyle became very friendly, and whose name has been immortalised in the Holmes stories."

"The Kabbalah distinguishes between four different "worlds" or "planes,".

"There are four creatures on the arms of Freemasonry."

According to Carl Jung, there are four primary mental functions - Thinking, Feeling, Intuition & Sensing.

And "four dimensions of modern science: length, breadth, width, and time."

Discovering a place in the U.S called the The Four Corners was most intriguing. This is the only place in America where four States - Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona & Utah, come together at one place.

"Another popular place for talk of underground activity is the area known as the Four Corners. This is the place where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet to share a common border. According to intelligence reports from several of my sources there are “at least six underground facilities in this area,” This is also the area where a large number of people died a “mysterious” death a few years back. Are there connections?
This harsh but beautiful arid land is also where the government decided to place several Indian Reservations. However, the Hopi Indians have been in this area as long as they can remember and luckily for us, their history of origin contains important details not found in the memory of other tribes."
The Hopi believe that this world we live in is the Fourth World and the other three are inside the earth. In stages, and through many hardships, they emerged from a hole called Sipapu, entrance to the Hopi underground."

Four is the number of physical manifestation, in this world of ours. We use the four energy to turn dreams into reality. It's our basic building block - mundane & crucial. So it's not really surprising that it's symbol (4) has been 'adjusted'. On top of the information already given I can't help also seeing the symbol '4' as a triangle, which to my mind indicates 3 & I wonder if this is not yet another layer to the all round trickery involved, another confusion for our already overburdened senses.

I have wondered during my travels with 'four' if it would benefit us to create our own feelings about numbers, instead of being manoeuvered by the symbols that have stalked us since birth. I have been playing with the idea of creating a feeling of 'solid foundations' whenever I see the unbalanced 4 symbol - a personal effort to reconnect with an important little number.

The Oracle & the burning ships (part 2)

If you were a betting person I wonder what odds you'd give me on three sister ships catching fire & sinking as a result. To add to the odds all will have serious fire incidents during their life.

Until I started researching this article I had never contemplated a 'burning ship', except perhaps the stories of Viking funeral ships.

The Lakonia was the first sister to succumb - fire broke out aboard her exactly one month after the death of JFK on December 22, 1963. Lakonia is the ancient region of Sparta in Greece. I have followed in the wake of this first sister & she has taken me on an intriguing journey.

The next sister we come to is the rather royal MS Oranje - named for the ruling family of the Netherlands Orange & launched by Queen Wilhemina herself in 1938. Her maiden voyage began on September4, 1939 - just one day after the opening ceremony of WWII. In 1941 she was loaned to the Australian govt. & converted into a beautiful hospital ship.

"After waiting an hour or so, that grand ship of mercy, the 'Oranje' was sighted. As she came closer I held my breath in admiration. She was the loveliest & most beautifully streamlined craft I had ever seen afloat. From her masts down to her plimsoll-line, this magnificent floating hospital was painted a spotless white, reminding me of a gigantic dove. The vivid red cross on her sides could be seen for miles."

In 1964, Oranje along with her running mate, Willem Ruys, was sold to the Italian shipping company Flotta Lauro (Star Lauro). Both ships were renamed & both names interested me very much.

Oranje became the Angelina Lauro - I think it's safe to say that most people upon hearing that name will have a brief (or longer, depending on their preferences) image of the Oracle goddess Angelina Jolie. I know I did & I was curious - could there be anything to see? Well originally I found some snippets, but then let it lie. However this actress came up in conversation with a friend & shortly thereafter I watched the 1984 movie Romancing the Stone & lo & behold the movie ends with this beauty straddled across the streets of New York. (This image has been appropriated from the excellent Jake Kotze's site)



"The word "Colombia" comes from the name of Christopher Columbus... It was conceived by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda (Miranda = She who must be admired) as a reference to all the New World."

"Some of the most common names go deep back in history when people used to name children after animals (having in mind their preferred characteristics). Thus, Colomb, Colon, Columbus, also Coulomb etc. (different variations of the same name) come from the roman/Latin word for Dove" - incase you have forgotten the quote from above about Oranje "This magnificent floating hospital was painted a spotless white, reminding me of a gigantic dove."

I returned to my contemplation of movie stars as symbolic gods & wondered about Angelina, (though not for long), because when the Oracle speaks, it's normally up to a spot of myth-making itself - "A Harpers and Queen magazine (read Oracle) compiled list has put the stunning Jolie as the most beautiful woman on Planet Earth."
How can you argue with that? Anyway added to that was the fact that I was looking at ships, albeit only three instead of the full quota of a thousand, but enough to make a leap of wondering.

So lets look at Angelina Jolie as a symbolic Helen of Troy.

The delightful Helen, delighting even herself (notice the doves!)

There was a bit more to this choice I must admit - having looked long at the Lakonia, there were many points of interest - first Lakonia being Sparta - I had not realised that the lovely Helen was actually Helen of Sparta. Then it was kind of interesting to find that Jolie's father, Jon Voight was born on December 29, the day the sacrificial hull of Lakonia sank.

Prior to the birth of her twins a curious story was announced by the Oracle - "Angelina Jolie Wants to Name Her Twins Castor and Pollux" - the reasoning apparently being that she is a Gemini. Anyone open to a little more thought than what's available in the tabloids (etymology = "1884, "small tablet of medicine... for compressed or concentrated chemicals and drugs") might be interested to know that Castor & Pollux are the brothers of Helen of Sparta. The circumstances of her conception are a little on the more creative side & would certainly result in criminal charges or psychiatric evaluation, these days.
"Her mother was the beautiful Leda, queen of Sparta, who was ravished by the father of the gods (Zeus) in the form of a swan" - guys don't try this at home, besides if the wind changes you might stay that way.



The story does not stop there however "Leda's husband was Tyndarecus, who later the same night, unaware of his feathered predecessor, also impregnated his wife. She produced two eggs, one of which yielded Helen and Polydeuces (Pollux) and the other of which contained Castor and Clytemnestra."
There is another tale that Zeus mated with the goddess Nemesis, Nemesis being none too pleased at being jumped by a bird, abandoned the egg but it was hatched? & raised by Leda & Thyndarecus. However the Leda & Swan story seems to rate most popular in the art world.

Regarding her name, wiki states "Helen is derived from the Greek ‘ελενη or Helene, meaning "torch" or "corposant." For anyone as ignorant as I was, a corposant is an electrical discharge accompanied by ionization of surrounding atmosphere - another name is 'St Elmo's Fire' - "a visible and sometimes audible electric discharge projecting from a pointed object, such as the mast of a ship or the wing of an airplane, during an electrical storm...the electrons have enough energy to ionize atoms in the air and cause them to glow... It is named after St. Elmo, the patron saint of mariners, as the phenomenon was often observed by sailors during thunderstorms at sea."
Tying Helen very nicely again to ships, in particular 'fiery ships'.

So the Oranje's new incarnation was as the Angelina Lauro & as such she sailed to Genoa (O Ange) in 1964 for a make-over. As the incarnation proceeded, disaster occurred - on 24th August, fire broke & six people were killed. (In Roman times, 24th August was one of three days in the year when a pit that was thought to lead to the underworld was opened so that "spirits of the blessed dead were able to commune with the living."). It wasn't until 6 March, 1966 that Angelina Lauro departed on her maiden voyage.



Returning to the theme of Helen , I came upon some interesting quotes.
"Helen of Sparta was perhaps the most inspired character in all literature, ancient or modern. A whole war, one which lasted for ten years, was fought over her."
And
"She has become a symbol of man's erotic desires & of all the varied moods of womanhood. The ancient myth that forever associates her with beauty & the Trojan War."

Funnily enough I wrote the following sentence before I had typed the latter quote - For myself she has meant two things - 'beauty' & 'Troy'.

I think the following quotes give us a glimmer of the importance of this character -
"Her story is one that is intricately intertwined with many of the Greek gods & goddesses."
&
"It is as though this event was in the destiny of every dynasty formed from the beginning of things."

Earlier as I was typing I mis-spelled story & found (s)troy looking back at me. Looking now I also see the twin-like appearance of the words destiny & dynasty. Again as I research & play with ideas I keep getting a feeling of historical reruns - change the characters a bit, mix up the scenery, tweak the names a little, but running behind it all are very strong threads weaving oh so familiar themes. One thing that bugs me is how bloody awful these Greek & Roman myths are - they have never inspired me, I could use a few choice words to describe my irritation at the endless, callous interference of the 'gods'.

The story of Helen was no exception, she was a mere pawn or puppet in a pre-written play. Three goddesses have a tiff about who is the fairest & hey presto the lives of tens of thousands are scuttled. I wrote previously about the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI & how I felt it was a re-enactment of 'Troy' - I stand by that now more than ever - but I have to add here ' For the love of all we hold dear, what is the point?'

Returning to Helen/Angelina we find that our modern (that means all new, never seen before - yeah right) 'beauty' has traded in Paris for Achilles.

In the old version of the story Paris forsakes his wife to be with Helen, the modern version has Brad Pitt /Achilles in the same role. Actually one of the stories about Helen after the closing ceremony of Troy, was that she married Achilles.

A long time ago, I watched a programme on TV, it may have been an episode from the Twilight Zone, I don't recall, but the story stayed with me. It was set in a a courtroom , I believe someone was charged with murder. My memory may be a bit off here but I seem to recall that when the accused was found guilty, the story ended, then a moment later the whole thing would be repeated, only this time the characters had all changed positions, this time it might be the judge who was the accused & so on, round & round the scene went - I do so wonder sometimes if that's not the plot of this thing we call life.

Anyway enough surmising, on with the show (or rerun).

Now we move to 1979. I have previously written that I believed this year was significant. My attention was drawn there initially when I wrote about the AIR New Zealand DC10 that crashed into Mt Erebus (entrance to Hades), in Antarctica that year, killing everyone outright. Sir Edmund Hillary was meant to have been the commentator for that scenic flight as he had been previously, but the Titan was replaced by his friend. I was contemplating 1979 recently when I had the urge to do a little math play (a very rare urge I might add) - I wondered how many years there were between 1979 & 2012 - wow looky there - that magic number 33.

For the last few years of her life the Angelina Lauro was leased to Costa Lines & as their custom was to use Christian names she became simply Angelina.

On 30th March, 1979 while she was berthed at St Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands, fire broke out (again) in the crew galley. (Thanks here to Aferrismoon - I went to check out something else on his site, when the first line of his new article leaped off the page -"THOMAS comes from Thaumim [hebrew] meaning TWINS." - taking us right back to Castor & Pollux - Helen's brothers. Another 'Thomas' who appeared in my research was Diane Thomas, a Malibu waitress who wrote the screenplay for Romancing the Stone. She died in a car crash shortly after that film's release.

"The fire aboard Angelina spread very quickly & was soon out of control. Most crew & passengers were ashore at the time & all others were evacuated safely. It took four days to put out the fire & the Angelina ended sitting on the shallow harbour bottom."

The Angelina lay in state for 3 months. Eventually a selvage contract was awarded & she was re floated on 2 July - "the middle day of a non-leap year, because there are 182 days before and 182 days after." On July 30 she departed under tow for a Taiwanese ship breakers & although she made it most of the way, her hull began to give way when she reached the Pacific & on 24th September she sank just before sunrise.

If you asked me what we're looking at I can't tell you, three ships somehow connecting with events (at least to me) - echoing a re-enactment of what is supposed to be long dead history.

So last but not least we come to the third sister (although both her incarnations have a male title.) Firstly 'she' was the Willem Ruys. Building began in 1939, but was delayed due to the War & she was not launched until 1946. Immediately of interest is the fact that the date of her maiden voyage in 1947, December 2, was also the date she sank 47 years later. Also of interest is that the Angelina, in her previous incarnation as Oranje collided with the Willem Ruys in the Red Sea in 1953 - I did have fun imagining the colour scheme. So in 1964 Oranje became the Angelina Lauro, while the Willem Ruys became the Achille Lauro - please tell me you remember this ship - so sure was I that everyone would instantly remember this ship that I assured my son I could mention it to anyone of a reasonable age & it would be instantly recognised. I felt a right prat to find blank faces staring back at me a few days ago, when I mentioned the name at my martial arts class. All was not lost however when the Israeli woman I swap wrist locks with talked of how as a child she had spent many weekends on the Angelina Lauro when it was in port (her father was in shipping). Apparently it had a wonderful aviary & she had been distraught to think of the birds when the ship had burnt - I can only hope they were rescued as certainly everyone managed to get off in time - what a small world isn't it?



The Achille Lauro could be called an unlucky ship. "This ship really did not have the most pleasant career. She is best known for having been hijacked by the Palestine Liberation Front, ... And constantly plagued with fire's..."

As befitting a new name & incarnation, the Achille Lauro underwent her own make over. However, as with her sister, Angelina " the vessel suffered an explosion and a resulting fire on August 29, and work was thereby much delayed.

And again...

"on May 19, 1972 the ship was badly damaged by fire during an overhaul at Genoa. It took five months before Achille Lauro could enter service again."

Next...

"On April 28, 1975 she accidentally rammed the small Lebanese cattle carrier Youssef in the Dardanelles. The accident resulted in one human casualty."

continuing...

"The next serious accident happened in 1981, when the ship suffered yet another fire." A book I have on shipping accidents claims that two passengers died trying to escape.

Then in 1985 came the 2 day hijacking by the Palestine Liberation Front. I certainly remembered this & for one reason alone, the murder of the wheelchair-bound American, Leon Klinghoffer & to be honest now that I have come to think of it, not even so much for his murder, as awful as that is, but to the aftermath - the throwing of his body & wheelchair into the sea. For some strange reason this bothers me more - sorry maybe that doesn't sound quite right. It is most shocking to think of someone being executed, let alone while sitting in a wheelchair, but it was the dramatic over-kill that has always stayed with me. 1985 was the year that the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed here in NZ, in Auckland Harbour. When I wrote about that it was the over-kill of that happening that made me see it as something else - a satanic ritual (remembering that the French code-name for that operation was Operation Satanic.)

So I cannot help but think along the same lines with sacrifice of this man. We are given the story that he was executed because he was a Jew. Maybe that was it, but looking back into time, with a curious mind, the whole event seems to wrap itself around that one event, as if once that was completed the show was over & the cast quickly left the stage.

Looking at that event we see a man named for the sun - Leon Klinghoffer. I know I have read of wheelchairs as chariots (Aferrismoon, maybe others, possibly also as a solar barque so apologies if I'm not giving credit here) & I couldn't help but feel that something very ritualistic occured with that death & the symbolic casting of the body & 'chariot' into the sea (I was reminded of another 'falling man' who was displayed by the Oracle on 10 Sept, 2001).

Looking Greekwise for a solar myth we find Helios who "drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night... As time passed, Helios was increasingly identified with the god of light, Apollo."

On 30 November, 1994 while sailing in the Indian Ocean, yet another fire broke out. This time the fire was devastating & the ship was evacuated, although it seems two people died during the transfer of passengers to a rescue ship. The ship burned for 3 days before sinking on 2 December, the same day she was launched back in 1947.



So there you have it, a strange tale of burning ships - three sister from the Netherlands, who seem to me to link with myths from (apparently) long ago. The Lakonia who seemed to whisper to me that JFK was a symbol of the sun god & Oracle magnate, Apollo & then Angelina & Brad, oops sorry Achilles - ships that crashed in the night (actually I think it was daytime). I have for sometime now considered that ships are somehow messengers & myths themselves - with great tales to tell if we could but understand. This has been an amatuers attempt to see what that might be.

The Oracle & the burning ships (part I)

I guess this article started within a book on shipwrecks, browsing through the pages & coming across The Lakonia & the date 22nd December 1963 - Oh look at that, it caught fire exactly one month after Kennedy was assassinated, I wonder if there's anything to that. Then there was the Lakonia, L-a-k-o-n-i-a where do I know that name from. In the end I remembered it as the name of a ship mentioned in a Jane Austen novel - NO, don't get excited I'm not going to tie Jane Austen to the assassination of President Kennedy - although... you never know!

What this episode did do was attract my attention & from there it was a couple of very simple hops to another couple of shipwrecks. I printed off some info, went hunting, but then it kind of fizzled out - just not enough bounce to keep an article afloat...until I watched the 1984 movie 'Romancing the Stone' & a friend mentioned Angelina Jolie & voila, an article was launched. At present I have absolutely no idea where it's leading - so I'm in the dark as much as you as to how this ends.

Batman made me contemplate the idea of superheroes as representations of gods, so what about movie stars? Gods or classical heroes/heroines "from Gk. heros "demi-god".

The more I look into this theme, the more it seems to me, that we're just rehashing the past. With the addition & repetition of just one word, I think we have been conned into believing that we live in 'brand new, never before seen' times - that word is 'modern'. A spot of word play with the phrase modern times creates some interesting anagrams - More Mindset - Dire moments -Remits Demon - Endmost Mire - Mind Remotes - Nimrod Metes.

So lets go back to the Lakonia & all the crossthreads she inspired to weave this material.

The Lakonia was originally the MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, built as a luxury liner for the Netherland Line & launched on August 3, 1929 & construction was completed on 1st March, 1930. In 1941 she was registered as an allied troop ship. She returned to 'public life' in 1950. On 23rd January 1952, four small fires were discovered as she sailed for Australia. Arson was suspected but no culprits found. You will come across many fires as we proceed - kind of like the beginning of Mission Impossible, different stories but one long burning fuse connecting all.

Four years to the day after 'the music died', - 3rd February, 1963, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was decommissioned by the Netherland Line after 33 years of service. On 8th March, 1963 she was sold & her name changed to TSMS Lakonia.

Nine months later she set sail on December 19 for an 11 day 'Christmas Cruise' with a total of 1,022 people on board. 3 days into the cruise, at around 11.00pm on 22nd December, smoke is noticed seeping under the door of the ship's hairdressing salon. It sweeps rapidly through the ship. At 12.22am, the last distress call is sent "SOS from the Lakonia, last time. I cannot stay anymore in the wireless station. We are leaving the ship. Please immediate assisstance. Please help." Evacuation was very difficult, some lifeboats burned before they could be lowered. The Lakonia burned fiercely & was rocked by explosions. At 3.30am the first rescue ship arrived. Wiki states 128 people were killed, 33 of whom were crew members. On 24th December the Norwegian tugboat Herkules, attached a tow line to Lakonia & attempts were made to haul her to Gibraltar, however on 29th December she rolled over onto her starboard side & sank in only 3 minutes.



So how do we tie this history lesson in with John F Kennedy? Good question. For one thing you can notice the numbers 22 & 11 - being the day & the month that Kennedy was assassinated, with 33 being the sum of these two numbers.

Ok, we'll start with Lakonia, which in ancient Greece was the principal region of the Spartan state. Looking briefly at modern day Lakonia we find mention of some devastating fires in 1992, 2006 & 2007.

Man this is so tricky because I kind of need to slew sideways into Angelina Jolie, but I might lose you altogether, if this was a poster I could just stick all the pictures together & it would probably sit together quite nicely, words can be just so slow & cumbersome.

Because of Angelina Jolie which I will come to, I started wondering if JFK could be a symbolic god & who he might be – how I came to Apollo I’m not quite sure, a number of hints I think, you make your own mind up as we go along.

Apollo was one of the most important Greek & Roman gods - the god of light & sun & truth & prophecy, among other things.



Now some time ago I wrote about the media, in particular ‘the news’ & the rituals they use, at the time I referred briefly to the Delphic Oracle with “I cannot help but equate the modern News service with the ancient Greek oracles."


Well it was Apollo who was the executive director of the Delphic Oracle, taking ownership by bumping off the previous owner, the serpent Python, when he was a mere five days old. Consultations with the Oracle were via a priestess who was seated atop a tripod over a subterranean opening from which vapours arose. The breathing of these fumes led to some weird & wonderful messages. “The oracular replies were always obscure & ambiguous, but they served in, in earlier times, in the hands of priests, to regulate & uphold the political, civil & religious relations in Greece.”

We may scorn such 'no-sense' now, but how long did it take us 'awake' seekers to question the six o'clock news?



John F Kennedy is remembered for a number of things besides the manner of his death. One of these was his speeches – who doesn’t know that ‘He was a Berliner’ (yes I’ve heard the doughnut jokes too.) Who wouldn’t recognize his voice when other presidents may be forgotten.



I think that the man who was made president, was subsequently made into a symbolic god via the modern version of the Delphic Oracle – the Media. This however, was no one-sided partnership, for the man who became the sun god of America, birthed through his life & death the new Delphic Oracle – the Media. Prior to Kennedy there was a modicum of televised presidential coverage, but it was JFK who, like the young Apollo took over this media oracle. In 1960 was the first ever presidential candidate debate between JFK and Nixon. Kennedy used this visual medium to his utmost advantage “Kennedy came across as young, athletic and poised. Nixon, wearing a wrinkled gray suit that melded with the backdrop on black-and-white screens, looked pallid, thin and ill at ease. He refused to wear makeup to mask his “fiveo’clock shadow…The debates afforded chances for tens of millions voters to see the candidates compete directly for votes.”

“These debates were widely regarded as having a decisive impact on the result.”



" INTERVIEWER: How do you think it changed the way American journalism is done, and the way the media functions?
MIKE MOSETTIG (senior producer for foreign affairs and defense at The NewsHour): Well, it certainly highlighted what had been developing, because Kennedy was really our first television president. He was elected in large part because of television”

“Just five days into office, President John F. Kennedy faced network cameras to answer the questions of the Washington Press Corps. It was an innovation to see a president in an unrehearsed setting, and the session established a tradition that continues to this day.”

So Kennedy was inducted into the hearts & minds of a nation as well as throughout the world via the ‘medium’ of television. For the first time a president entered the homes of the ‘ordinary’ man & woman in the street. This same president was killed in front of their eyes a few years later. We who have been trained in death via this same medium cannot grasp the effect on the psyche of the people who witnessed this event, the murder of a man they ‘knew’. “John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination was one of the most shocking public events of the 20th century.” Nevertheless this event was crucial for anchoring the ‘Oracle’ in the psyche of the people.

“The network coverage of the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy warrants its reputation as the most moving and historic passage in broadcasting history. On Friday 22 November 1963, news bulletins reporting rifle shots during the president's motorcade in Dallas, Texas, broke into normal programming. Soon the three networks preempted their regular schedules and all commercial advertising for a wrenching marathon that would conclude only after the president's burial at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday 25 November. As a purely technical challenge, the continuous live coverage over four days of a single, unbidden event remains the signature achievement of broadcast journalism in the era of three network hegemony. But perhaps the true measure of the television coverage of the events surrounding the death of President Kennedy is that it marked how intimately the medium and the nation are interwoven in times of crisis.”

I believe the death of Kennedy was the true birth of the Delphic Oracle known today as the Media. “Television became the primary source by which people were kept informed of events surrounding John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Newspapers were kept as souvenirs rather than sources of updated information. All three major U.S television networks suspended their regular schedules & switched to all-news coverage from 22 November through to 25 November 1963. Kennedy’s state funeral procession and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald were all broadcast live in America & in other places around the world.”

The death of the sun god took & ‘shepherding in of the oracle took place exactly one month before the death & birth of another son (sun) of god “The sun “dies” for three days on December 22nd, the winter solstice, when it stops in its movement south, to be born again or resurrected on December 25th, when it resumes its movement north”



Referring back to Apollo we find that on 25 May 1961, Kennedy declared his goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade. This intention also became a part of the American psyche through the ‘Oracle’. It was of great interest to me to see this lofty dream occur through the media in 1969, on July 20 which was the birthday of the man who climbed to the loftiest place on earth, none other than Edmund Hillary & even more intriguing to find that Kennedy was born on May 29, the very date that the Everest 'landing’ occurred – ‘great’ people do seem to turn in ever decreasing circles.

Turning again to fire scarifices/initiations, the first Apollo mission named in retrospect was one that saw the death by fire of Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom, Ed White & Roger B. Chaffee when a flash fire occurred in command module 012 during a launch pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle. If astronauts were as superstitious as sailors this would probably also have been the last Apollo mission, for myself as an ‘ordinary’ non ritualistic type of person I find this naming a little bizarre. It is also rather interesting that the Apollo Moon Landing took off from the Kennedy Space Centre - the man may not have been present, but his name has certainly not been put to waste.



Nevertheless, the Apollo 11 mission was ‘televised’ & millions of people who knew the Oracle spoke the truth because it had been shown them with shocking clarity in 1963, watched & were amazed as this new Apollo boldy went where no man had gone before & claimed the moon for its own.

Wiki informed me that the ‘Eternal Flame’ that lights the American Apollo’s grave was a last minute request by his wife Jackie, cough, cough, splutter sorry I’ve got a bit of a cold. Remembering that the sun “dies” for three days on December 22nd, the winter solstice, I suggest that another Eternal Flame was lit one month after his assassination & the birth of the Oracle, on the good ship the Lakonia/Sparta.
“The ancient city of Amyklai was situated some 5 kilometers south of Sparta… On the hill of Agia Kiriaki one can see the remains of the Archaic sanctuary of Apollo, which at one time boasted an enormous statue of the god seated on the altar - tomb of Hyakinthos… It evolved into the Sanctuary of lakinthos and Apollo Amykleos, the most important religious centre of the Spartans, which has also been known as the "Throne" of Apollo.”

Why the Lakonia caught fire I do not know, a deliberate fire or the result of energies created by the events of the previous month, heck most people not of the ‘wondering’ persuasion would roll their eyes & murmur something about electrical faults or bad luck. The Lakonia herself played an importanr contribution to the early days of the Oracle through LIFE magazine
“The only color photographs ever taken of the Lakonia disaster ran in LIFE magazine on Jan 3, 1964. LIFE’s photographic coverage of the event marked only the second time in history that a publication was able to offer hour-by-hour photographic coverage of a disaster at sea.”



Four years earlier on the very same day “One day after announcing his candidacy for president, John F. Kennedy appears on Meet the Press.”

The Oracle did much more than announce & televise Kennedy’s presidency & death. The word oracle comes from L. oraculum "divine announcement.” Over the years it has turned him & the Kennedy family into ‘Stars’ – here are some excerpts from an excellent article (see link below for the full story.)

“transformation of the Kennedys from largely conventional political figures into pop-culture deities from the world of entertainment -- the cultural equivalents, perhaps, of Elvis Presley or the Jacksons…

Neither is it a coincidence that the Kennedy family, through its infatuation with Hollywood, was instrumental in the conversion…

To be sure, the Kennedys have had -- and continue to have -- a political impact on the nation. To many, they have embodied an ideal of public service. But politics hasn't been this family's calling card in the mass culture for some time…

The Kennedys have really become entertainment superstars. Consider some of the evidence: Like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, they attract a kind of tabloid journalism and biography which focuses even more than usual on scandal and unsavory personal tidbits…

This is a family identified by first names in the familiar Hollywood style -- Jack, Jackie, Bobby, Ethel, Teddy -- just as we once knew Elvis, Marilyn, and Ringo, but certainly not as we have known Franklin, Ronald, or even Bill…

As a kind of entertainment family the Kennedys were a prime force in blurring the distinctions between Hollywood and Washington -- that blur being a condition characteristic of the age…

Sadly, the assassinations also played a role in the conversion of the Kennedys into pop-culture phenomena. As Schickel has observed, dying young, if not violently, is something of an entertainment-industry phenomenon, as anyone familiar with the lives and deaths of Elvis, Marilyn, Valentino, James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, John Belushi, Ritchie Valens, John Lennon, and Jim Morrison knows. It's not simply that an untimely death fulfills a romantic image that goes back to Byron and Keats, or that the premature passing of an entertainment figure tends to inspire a death cult in which numerous fans refuse to believe the star is dead. Dying young freezes the stars at their peak: like the promise of Hollywood itself, they remain forever young and beautiful -- the perfect icons for the immortality that films and records purport to offer.”


The whole of this excellent article is here. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/pres/stark.htm

I believe that through the scarificial blood of John F. Kennedy, the oracle that is today’s media was was brought forth, just as humans rise & fall as symbols, then so to did the media then begin it’s ascendancy to the god-like heights it has attained today.

Last but not least on this Apollo Trek was something that I almost missed & perhaps it’s been remarked somewhere else, but it knocked my socks off. "Apollo was the son of Zeus & Leto . “Leto… known as the hidden one and bright one, her name came to be used for the moon Selene. Hera was jealous of Leto because Zeus, the husband of Hera, had fallen in love with her. From their union Leto bore the divine twins, Artemis and Apollo. Leto found this to be an arduous task, as Hera had refused Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island out at sea. The only place safe enough to give birth was Delos because Delos was a floating island…To show her gratitude, Leto anchored Delos to the bottom of the Aegean with four columns, to aid its stability.”

The Terrace of the Lions dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos

I can’t help but see that Dealey Plaza does look rather like an island,



so we have our sun god, Apollo on an island in Dallas, or could we perhaps say in Delos?

Well I’ve written much more than I intended & there’s more to come so I think for all our sakes I’d better make this into a two parter, I’m just bloody glad I’ve got this far. Our next exciting installment will have more burning ships & Greek myths & movie stars. Stay tuned.

Dark times

It's winter here in New Zealand & a very soggy one at that.

From my earliest days I've 'known' that Winter is a time of cold, darkness & inactivity. A time to be got through until life 'springs' forth magically after those long, cold months.

I was surprised & delighted a little while ago, to have my long-learned assumptions overturned. Because of course, life issues from darkness. Just as a foetus forms in darkness, so too does nature - the time when all seems like death, is in fact the time of renewal & rebirth.



If you plant this weird & wonderful thing in the dark autumn earth,



Then this beauty will spring forth after it has lain in the darkness of Winter's soil.


In the past I simply considered that it was Spring that was all important, now I choose to see Winter as the beginning.

We have been educated to see that life comes with light & so it does, but somewhere before that, it formed in darkness.

"Long, long ago, the earth was deep beneath the water. There was a great darkness because no sun or moon or stars shone." - an American Indian approach

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" - a biblical approach

"Chaos was the 'vast and dark' void from which the first deity, Gaia emerged." a Greek approach

First there was the darkness, which seems to be overcome by the light. The preoccupation with the light seems to be in full swing now - I've been wondering if a lot of this comes because the dark, fertile parts of life have been claimed by more aware powers, while we were busy glorying in 'the light'.

It is perhaps, as with so many things, the use & abuse of words that allows such things to happen. For how long have we been terrorised by 'the dark' I wonder, & I also wonder who decided what the dark meant.

Shifting my focus to seeing darkness as a rich & fertile medium, I find that I must make some radical changes in my thinking. Thus far I have believed that I am battling the 'forces of darkness', but now I have to question anew. Are the forces which we call 'dark', perhaps a little more awake than we are & have they gone straight to the source of power in this world. While we relentlessly battled the events that sprang forth eternally, ready made - pre-packaged products in the supermarket of life, have they been accessing the dark fertile creativity of this world, fertilising the very womb of our reality. Certainly we do seem to be like the cavalry, arriving at events long after the creators have bolted. We are seeing more clearly, but always after the event. I doubt there's anyone who writes or combs pages like these who wouldn't give their all to experience such rich creativity, bringing forth however, a very different kind of reality, one where passionate experience is the norm.

So have we been frightened away from the very place & energy that we need. The dark has become the place of demons & devils & the outcasts of society. Hollywood has done more than it's fair share of community service to keep us aware & frightened of the 'Dark Side'.



In recent years our programmers have been shifting their emphasis towards a blurring of light & dark/good & evil - I'm wondering if those who have been initiated into the zombie religions of success, materialism & entertainment, are perhaps now ready to add their corrupted energy to the artificial insemination of the dark & fertile womb of this reality.

For most of us the abyss between light & dark/good & bad has been so firmly entrenched in our psyche that we have tended to set up our tents in one camp or the other. I rather think this was the plan. Two sides forever fighting each other, a huge cosmic game of ping pong across a net that spans a deep dark crevasse. Just gotta keep that ball being lobbed back & forth, back & forth...

But I wonder now what that crevasse holds. Perhaps into that darkness/fertility I might cast the seeds of dreams long thought impossible (because I've been so busy fighting pre-packaged events). I also wondered if this could be the realm that play springs from - play is always new, inventing, creating - assuredly bringing into light what wasn't there before, but bringing it from where - from the fertile creatvity of the Dark?