Telling stories

Some weeks ago I wrote about a book that suggested that humanity is in the throes of remembering the cataclysm that once nearly destroyed the earth & that all the present apocalyptic stories are more to do with this, than as a forerunner for another 'naughty humans' punishment.

A couple of weeks later I had an intense personal experience. In order to write this article it means I have to give away some information that I might prefer to keep to myself, however I have to say that keeping things to myself has not perhaps worked so well for me in the past, so maybe it is time to let go a little more.

Despite the twinning messages of the 'rich & famous' & 'catastrophe' that bombard us daily from each & every media outlet, our lives generally go on as they always do. I believe most people carry great personal pains & struggles within them. Most of the time they are carried silently, without complaint, accepting the generation upon generation premise that 'life's a bitch so get used to it'. I no longer accept this crap & will travel whatever routes feel right in order to experience whatever truth is.

The other week Michael from Hidden Agendas posted the 20 Keys of Conscious Creation from Gregg Braden's The Divine Matrix - Numero 18 had this to say "The root of our “negative” experiences may be reduced to one of three universal fears (or a combination of them): abandonment, low self-worth, or lack of trust."

For me this was spot on & my experience of a few weeks past really brought this home to me.

I have carried round all my life an almost living feeling of abandonment & betrayal - it follows me through each & every day - we are like conjoined twins. I cannot give a good enough reason from this lifetime to explain it & yet up until a few weeks ago I would have delved into my past & pulled up some examples & believed surely these must be the reason.



It was two intense feelings of abandonment & betrayal, in one day that finally did it for me. I must add here that these are my personal feelings, which more often than not methinks have bugger all to do with what actually happens.

On that day, two friends seemed to pull the rug out from under my feet - the first opened up the flood gates & the second unleashed the tsunami. I reached a saturation point when I could no longer contain-ignore the feelings as I normally do. I found myself completely engulfed in a combination of intense dread & whole-body nausea. I remember trying to make a dash for the bathroom, but something seemed to happen to my vision & the walls in my house seemed to be moving & I felt sure I would crash into them. I did make it to the bathroom & just crashed onto my knees - I remember the sound , but did not feel the pain. I got through that, but the searing intensity of that event turned my life upside down - never have I felt anything like that before. I have felt panic & fear but this was way beyond either of those.

Later, I talked to my son for a while as I've learned that is a great way to ground myself & I was able to absorb his sense & calmness.

Nevertheless the intensity stayed with me through the next day. At work I took myself off to the warehouse & engaged in hours of manual labour as I went over & over the feelings of the night before - what had happened? I had emailed a friend earlier trying to describe the feeling & had said it was like being marched off to execution. As I worked with my hands & let my mind wander, that thought returned & somehow it 'clicked' - had I re-experienced another time, another life where I had been betrayed & executed? While this may sound melodramatic I have to say that it did not feel so. As I mentioned previously, I have walked daily with a sense, an expectation, of betrayal & abandonment that I have accepted because it's always there, but done my best to ignore or drown out. I have always had an intense dislike of anything to do with executions. However I had never connected the two until the that full-body sense of dread overpowered me.

How would you or I feel if someone came to take you away to execution, especially if it came about through a betrayal of trust. I am tying these two notions together because my body did & I have for some time now felt that our bodies are a treasury of memories & knowledge which we have forgotten how to access.

Another possibility is that these are not my past life memories but a genetic imprint passed down through DNA. Whether it be this or something else again, these feelings have impacted my life & I have restricted the paths I've walked, because of them.`

Last night I went for a walk, I was feeling some of the chaotic emotions, which I have been working with lately. I thought about how it feels for me - how my particular form of intense emotional pain manifests - the thought-feeling came of having my heart ripped out. This led on to thinking of the Aztec sacrifices, something I was deeply interested in, during my teenage years. So I wondered some more. There must be many, many people who might describe their feeling of deep emotional pain in similar terms - could that particular emotional feeling of pain, have manifested itself through the Aztec rituals - could the emotional feel of having your heart ripped out of your chest have somehow created a physical counterpart? Does what we feel, get transformed into a physical story?

The more I look at life as a multi-layered story the more it makes sense - stories emerge where before there was a nonsensical jumble of unrelated occurrences.

What if our stories are just waiting for us to hear? What if our lives having been telling & retelling our stories throughout this & other life times? What if it's now really important that we listen, because there are things we need to do, instead of just rehashing the past.



So as I walked last night, I mulled over my Aztec ideas.



I saw within my life how I have twice experienced what could have been a personal re-enactment of an Aztec sacrifice ritual. I have had two children, both born by cesarean section. My first child died & I almost bled to death with him. A little over a year later my son was born, this time all went well but immediately after he was taken out of my body, I experienced an intense pain in my chest (it was by epidural so I was awake) - this pain was so bad that I needed several injections directly into that area to numb it - I had forgotten about this till last night. Was my body telling me about a story that I needed to remember & heal because if I don't, I can't break out of an endless cycle. Is that what this present time is about - a chance for our own personal healing?

My son suffers from something akin to irritable bowel syndrome. Now I have been looking at things like diet & lifestyle, but last night I wondered if his body is telling a story. Some years ago I had to rush him to hospital where he had his appendix removed. I thought of how we would describe his symptoms - gut wrenching, stabbing? - what if his body is telling him about some terrible wounding he experienced in a previous life. He is very interested in the World Wars of the last century. I've noted he has often referred to bayonets. Could surgical operations be a way of re-experiencing past woundings or guttings?

I have a friend who suffers from Asthma. Again I let my mind wander - first it went to the gassing in the nazi concentration camps, but then quickly I found myself in the trenches of WWI, recalling what I have read about the terrible gassing that took place there.




"The British Official History, after a gas attack stated, "90 men died from gas poisoning in the trenches; of the 207 brought to the nearest dressing stations, 46 died almost immediately and 12 after long suffering."

"Estimates are that approximately 113,000 tons of chemical weapons were used from 1915 to 1918, killing some 92,000 people and injuring over one million people."

What if the great numbers of asthma cases now, are people whose bodies are re-enacting horrendous physical & emotional suffering from these times. Or perhaps a life lived in the coal mines or some other such inhuman existence where breathing was a 'luxury.'


What happens to the intense energy created by hideous suffering & death - where does it go? Does it stay with us, locked into DNA or does it become part of the 'collective unconscious' or is it trapped in the aether? Does this energy need recognition & transformation?

What if this present time is not about ascension or moving onward or upward to the 4th, 5th or 600th dimension. What if it's power lies in the potential for healing that makes moving anywhere else unnecessary. Perhaps what we are trying to escape from is simply our own wounding & wounded. Perhaps healing is what we came here to do. Could it be that the multitude of diseases we are seeing throughout the world are stories & the more we refuse to listen the more insistent the story tellers become because that is our way home.

I mentioned these ideas to my son & we talked of cancer, one of today's most prominent diseases. He suggested that it could be a re-enactment of the plague, because he felt there was a similarity in the percentage of people affected. When the 'c' word is mentioned it is often related to 'lumps.'



From wiki: The total number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 75 million people, approximately 25–50 million of which occurred in Europe . The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population It may have reduced the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400.
The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 1700s. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe."
Where did the emotions generated by this awful suffering go? Does the energy just disappear because people die? Or is it here with us today seeking to be transformed by us instead of being locked into a vicious cycle of destruction?

Are our memories resurfacing? Is there a thinning in the veil between past & present? Is it possible that our bodies & their emotional stories are seeking to be heard? If this were so it could be a good reason why the PTB are creating such havoc - daily churning our already chaotic emotions to drown out that which we need to see & feel & hear. This could also explain the constant onslaught against our bodies in the form of poisonous foods, vaccinations, pollution while our minds are programmed & overloaded.

I also find it interesting how readily people are to talk of their physical illnesses & yet how how unacceptable or shaming it is to talk of emotions & feelings which perhaps are the real wounded story-tellers. Would illness be necessary if we understood & honoured our own stories? I also find it interesting that story-telling has been taken out of our mouths & hands & is placed into a few 'talented' writers in this world. The types of stories, the correct use of words, the creativity is the sole rite of a very small section of society. Yet I have never come across anyone who knew or could tell my story, sometimes I have seen glimmers, but you can't travel very far on a glimmer.


I have always found much healing in the honesty & straight talk of others & that is what I decided to post this article. We are all story-tellers every day of our lives. At present it seems that are bodies are doing the telling but perhaps one day soon we will step up & tell our stories so that we don't have to keeping swallowing the bs called history.

"A Tragic Coincidence"

I don't listen to the news or read the papers so finding things out comes under the 'later or never' category.
Thus it is, that I have only just learned of what the newspapers are calling a "Tragic Coincidence'. I myself am in a serious state of wtf 'ness.

A few days ago an AIR NZ Airbus crashed off the coast of France killing all 7 crew on board. A small death toll you may think & indeed it could have been much worse. The thing is it happened on the anniversary of our national air disaster 29 years ago. Although the incident took place just off France on the 27th, in New Zealand, it was the morning of the 28th November.

We are a small country with a very small population & an almost clean 'bill of health' when it comes to aviation accidents. The Erebus crash in 1979 shocked our whole country - it was our first ever serious aviation disaster, all the more devastating because of the story behind it - a change of co-ordinates in the middle of the night which led to a plane full of sightseers flying into the slopes of Mt Erebus in Antarctica (in Greek mythology Erebus is the gateway to Hades).



"The crash of TE 901 profoundly shocked New Zealand. In such a small country, virtually everybody knew, or knew of, somebody who died when the widebody DC10 airliner crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus on Ross Island"

"Just hours before TE 901 left, in the dead of night, the final waypoint for the Antarctic flights was changed by Air New Zealand’s flight operations division from the spot in the middle of the sound to a beacon near the McMurdo airfield. The effect of this change was to shift the flight path 43 kilometres to the east, on a direct course towards Mt Erebus, an active volcano on Ross Island. Nobody told the crew of the change. It is clear from their comments, preserved on the cockpit voice recorder, that they believed at all times they were flying in safety over the flat McMurdo Sound, not over the adjacent Lewis Bay towards the mountain."

For full details & if you have the time, here is a link to the article I wrote earlier in the year.
http://toolonginthisplace.blogspot.com/2008/03/erebus.html

(I'm sorry but I didn't know how to put pictures in the body of the article back then, in case it looks a bit wordy)

The 'coincidence' & wtf'ness of this crash has taken me on a journey back through a number of the articles I've written about over the past 10 months.

Back in March, a band of dark magicians-musicians swooped into NZ for a rock concert on no ordinary date - the chosen time was the vernal equinox of the Easter Weekend. It was a huge production, no expense spared. WETA Workshop Studios who created the special effects for 'Lord of the Rings' (which was of course filmed here), designed & built the sets.

It was advertised thusly " This Easter will see an event never before experienced on the planet at any place at any time!" In this very out of the way, corner of the world, a fiery extravanganza was held over two days - the bands that flapped in were Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, White Snake, Alice Cooper, Poison -plus NZ bands Sonic Altar, The Valves & Symphony of Screams.

Perhaps these are your favourite bands, no problem, my question back then, as it is now is why come here?? Why come to somewhere so out of the way & it wasn't for scenery because they buggered off as quick as they came. I can't see how they'd have made that much money - that's a heck of a lot of big names to share the proceeds with. At the bottom the linked article above is a link to an article by the very knowledgeable Ellis Taylor who also spotted the 'strangeness'.

What I felt at the time was that some ritual took place on our shores. Less than two weeks after that fire festival, a huge fire destroyed a cold storage building - killing one fireman & injuring 6 more Total = 7

http://firegeezer.com/2008/04/06/new-zealand-blast-kills-1-ff-6-others-critical/
And couple of weeks after that a flash flood washes through a canyon killing 6 teenagers & their teacher Total = 7

"The amount of water that came down the canyon is particularly unusual. I've never seen it rise in that short a period of time in the 24 years I've been here."

I noted that the teacher was 29 years old - Erebus was 29 years ago.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4481793a10.html

I wrote about both events at the time. And now when I should be contemplating making dinner, yet another 'coincidence' springs to mind. Back in 1985, the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland Harbour. Until a series of coincidences led me to look into this I had, like all good Kiwis, simply accepted the story we were told. The official sauces sorry sources 'informed' us that the French 'did it'- we accepted this because we 'knew' Greenpeace were being a bit of a nuisance by protesting about about the little nuclear tests that the bastards were conducting in our backyard (apologies to any peace-loving French people). We were pissed off at them & so it all kinda made sense - until you do the wtf that is!

Good God this is turning into a wise woman marketing article, however should you wish to read about the Rainbow Warrior & some wild (wise?) ramblings then you can click here

http://toolonginthisplace.blogspot.com/2008/02/following-trail-at-end-of-rainbow.html

Anyway the reason I brought that up was the 'coincidence' of the link between sinkings - one caused by the French in NZ waters & now an Air NZ plane lies in French waters on a very specific date in NZ history.

Also we have the similarity in the crash - I still feel churned when I think of Flight 901, I've read the black box transcript, they thought they were somewhere else & were at very low altitude as they flew directly into the side of Erebus.

As for this recent crash:-

"A gendarme who raised the alarm after he saw the plane go down said he watched as it suddenly went into a dive while flying at a height of around 300 metres."

I am reminded too that there is now a linking between France & Antarctica - both now have a koru resting on their shores

" The koru is the Maori name given to the new unfurling fern frond and symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace...Koru can also refer to bone carvings. Those generally take the shape of the uncurling fern plant. When bone is worn on the skin, it changes colour as oil is absorbed. The Māori took this to symbolise that the spirit of the person was inhabiting the pendant. When someone gives a pendant to someone else, it is the custom that they wear it for a time so that part of their spirit is given as well."

Like the Rainbow Warrior, a symbol of peace becomes a symbol of death - here lies the tail (with koru) of Flight 901 on the slopes of Erebus.



More & more I become aware of repeating patterns, they seem to be repeating in smaller circles, or perhaps that's just me. Once I would have looked just for a conspiracy, but ever since looking at the sinking of the Lusitania, I have wondered if it is repeating energy, because just how much can be planned? And if it is repeating energy, perhaps there are those who know how to manipulate that. Perhaps a small event in time & space is enough to send some kind of ripple that will create a domino effect that seeks out well worn routes. Just speculating - trying to move a little closer to a place & understanding so we can step out of the human zoo we seem to be have been trapped in for far too long.

Additional: I can't believe I nearly missed this - sometimes you just have to say things out loud!
I mentioned to my son that I was just about finished 'my article' & he said "which one?" - as he knows I've been a busy beaver today. So I replied "the airbus one" followed by "oh my God!!" - this whole synching with the crash 29 years ago just came full circle because when you say 'airbus' out loud it is but one tiny syllable away from 'Erebus'.
While I realise there are airbuses aplenty in the world, I just found this completely amazing.

Airbus - Erebus

Fantastico

Last year I did not 'do' Christmas. I had read an article by Matthew Delooze on Christmas & it just hit home. As I have a son I could not not do something, so I thought it through & suggested we have a special day on the 24th to celebrate all our achievements of that year. I recalled a fun expression from an Eddie Izzard stand-up & so 'Fantastico' was born.

When I looked back over that year I had so much to celebrate - a return to living & a decision to stand up & speak out as best I could. Throughtout that year I had done what was for me, many, many impossible things.

So instead of celebrating according to set traditions, we went just a little wild.

We put photos of our holidays on the walls & wrote big long lists of all the wonderful things from that year - anything & everything that made us smile, was valid. Decorations were mostly tropical flowers as reminders of Hawaii. My son still got presents & we had nice food. Some of my family joined in & I believe my young niece & nephew rather enjoyed it.



What's more it was most interesting to wander around the world on Christmas Day without being caught up in it - it felt a little like walking in on someone else's dream.

When my son was small we lived in England, I was separated from his father & I remember one year when he was going to take him away for the festivities, I decided to do that Christmas alone. I remembered hearing stories of people who had committed suicide because they were alone at Christmas, so I figured if I did one Christmas alone I would never fear the pain of solo Xmas'ing. I actually had a bloody good day, with a nice meal in the evening & I still remember the movie I watched that night with much fondness.

So I just thought I'd mention this. I see so much frustration come from Christmas, so much hope & often so much let down. I spent years trying to figure out how to get back the pleasure that I thought I recalled from childhood, but now I think it was us, the children of yesteryear who created the magic with our imaginations & playful energy. It is children who make Santa real - what is that all about anyway?? Why do we need that? I still recall a girl at school being so distraught because she had just found out that her parents were 'Santa' - little did she know that her emotional outburst also burst my bubble that day - I did my best to soothe her while dealing with my own feelings of having just found out who Santa was. Because of that I could never bring myself to create the Santa illusion for my son, I couldn't just tell him Santa was bollocks, but I did my best to keep him out of the limelight.



I've attached Matthew Delooze's article about Christmas if you haven't read & would perhaps like to - be warned it has some awful pictures in it about a third of the way down - personally I scrolled past them as quick as I could, but I understood his sentiments.

I understand that there are many who enjoy the Christmas season & I wish them every happiness & all the goodies they could wish for, but there are many who suffer in one way or another at this time & my wishes go out to them too.

http://matthew-delooze.blogspot.com/2006/12/so-is-this-christmas.html

Twinsel Town

A few nights ago my son & I watched Tomb Raider. I'd told him that 'Rimmer' was in it & that had sparked his curiosity.




Those of you fortunate enough to have seen the 80's sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, will remember that "Rimmer's character traits include anal-retentiveness, over-adherence to protocol, cowardice (not seen as a flaw in this blog) misogyny, and a severely inflated ego coupled with a deep-seated self-loathing." He also has the misfortune of being dead & it is his holographic representation that we see. I'm quite sure that Futurama owes much to Red Dwarf.

Anyway it was because of Rimmer that we watched Tomb Raider. I thought I'd keep my eyes open throughout the movie to see what I undoubtedly missed first time round.

It was Lara's name that really caught my attention, for I swear I a number of times I heard not Lara, but Lyra. Even my son said that 'Rimmer' called Lara, Lyra. And then there was the 'gadget' she found - I just couldn't help thinking of Lyra's Alethiometer or 'Golden Compass' from the movie of the same name. Incidentally, both movies also sport the new Bond Sol-Ace, Daniel Craig & in both movies the Lara/Lyra character saves his life.

For some reason this twinning of the two movies set off a flow of thoughts that I now see has been at the back of my mind for some time, & prior to that is something I had noticed but not noticed for a great deal of my life.

I started thinking of twin actors - you know the ones who remind you so much of another actor.

Awhile back my son & I watched a movie called White Sands - don't rush out to hire it. What intrigued both of us was the fact that the main character held such a striking resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger. A number of times my son asked if I sure it wasn't Arnie & indeed the resemblance was so striking that the following day ...

...I looked up Willem Dafoe to see if I could synchronise their births - were they twins that had been separated? Alas there was apparently a few years difference.

There was a further twist to the this movie & that was that it is featured Mickey Rourke. Now I have always thought that Mickey Rourke looked a hell of a lot like Bruce Willis, & my son agreed.


I have had heaps of fun with this, first off I went & picked out the actors that have always remind me of someone else. I've also went out & purloined other like-minded comments from from the internet.

I've always thought that Helen Hunt looked like Jodie Foster - not the other way round mind you - Jodie is top dog & with Helen riding in the wings.

"There's a shot of Helen Hunt in Twister where she looks exactly like Jodie Foster - there's a similar shot of Jodie in Contact"

"I think Jodie Foster and Helen Hunt look a lot alike. Maybe its just me I don't know"

and for a further twister to this story I find another combination


"I think that lee lee sobieski and helen hunt could pass for mother and daughter"

"I always thought that she is Helen Hunt's daughter, because I think she looks just like her, on a younger version"



Now this last little twist brings to mind the lusciously scened movie A Good Woman based on Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan. In the movie, a young bride, Lady Windermere (Scarlett Johanssen) considers leaving her husband when she believes he’s been unfaithful with an older woman — who actually turns out to be her own mother (Helen Hunt). Perhaps art & life are having an identity crisis & keep getting themselves mixed up!

Now this is a very popular twinning & I'm far from the only one to notice it - Glenn Close & Meryl Streep.

"Sweet Jesus, It's Uncanny"

"I always thought that Glenn Close and Meryl Streep (Devil wears prada) is just one person..."

"Actress Glenn Close got mistaken for Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep while waiting in a line at the airport"

"Ms. Close has chosen to joke, “I’ve often been mistaken for Meryl Streep, but never on Oscar night”

For me these next two have more of a creepiness twinning - a similarity of character or something else that I feel, but can't put my finger on - in this particular article feelings are going to be allowed full throttle. These performers are Jon Voight & Christopher Walken - to me they seem interchangeable spirits. Funnily enough, it was watching Jon Voight's appearance in a 1992 movie about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, (Auckland, 1985) that got my hackles up & led to my first full on article.

"Do you ever confuse Jon Voight with Christopher Walken?
I always do...

I like Walken as well but for some reason always confuse them"

And I found these too, so I'm not the only who thinks they're creepy;

"Jon Voight from the very beginning; he has a narcissistic quality not unlike that of Christopher Walken and we all know how creepy Mr. Walken became after The Deer Hunter"

"Voight does creepy almost as well as Christopher Walken"

So before I go further I just want to point out the 'family' feel I get when I find my thoughts echoed across the internet. "Oh, so I'm not the only one who thought that."

Now the family I'm referring to is everyone. We who write on these blogs are for most intents & purposes, a small band of 'nutters' (yourself excepted of course). The majority of people who's words I've filched for this article, would most likely shake their heads & say wtf if they stumbled into these outer reaches. Nevertheless when I read their words I feel like I am among wakened people. Why? Because they're saying kinda 'crazy' things. I'm guessing that maybe because 'movie stars' are otherworldly beings who have enchanted this reality, the rules of 'normalcy' can be bent a bit & it is ok to say things without fear of it impacting on 'real' life.

Somehow people see these demi-gods & heroes in a different light & it's that light that I'm interested in. Under that light people seem able to say 'stupid' things - but what I think I'm seeing are not stupid things at all but an inner knowing that is being allowed to surface.

For instance, here's an obviously 'stupid' comment that at first I thought NO WAY - but that was when the beauty of many of these comments hit me - I was seeing childlike honesty - you know the stuff that kids blurt out because they 'see' that the Emperor is wearing NO underwear, or anything else for that matter. In this next instance we have the child & then the 'edjicated' adult... yet still the adult dares to speak;

"Don't laugh, but when I was young I always confused Bill Murray for Tom Hanks. I always thought they had the same face! Now I feel like an idiot for confusing a complete acting legend for another"

I heard sincerity in this person's words & so despite grave doubts I went fishing for faces


A child saw/sensed/felt, a connection between these two men - in this article that is enough - he or she is heard. I just went-a-hunting to see if I could see what this child saw/sensed/felt. I was impressed, even more so when I came upon some unexpected twisters.

"Tom Hanks was first choice for the lead" (in Groundhog Day)

"Bill Murray was considered for the role of Forrest" [Gump]

"Two decades ago I thought Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton and Bill Murray were interchangeable stars making the same types of movies"

And from a write-up of Tom Hanks' movie That Thing You Do, we find Tom also twins through time with the next generation, as the movie features "Tom Everett Scott, a fresh-faced Tom Hanks look-alike"

Care for a wee dram from the gene pool - perhaps a little Char-DN-A?

What I'm suggesting for the duration of this article is a whole-hearted acceptance & yours, my & others views & feelings on this subject. If you or someone else say they see or feel a likeness (or twinning) then just for this time lets accept that it's true. Let's pretend that there is a wiser part of you & me that has noticed a very strange anomaly - that Tinsel Town is jam-packed with 'twins.' Let's pretend that we all have eyes to see a little - but put all our eyes & feelings together & we may find that it reveals a startling map of hidden connections. We might find that if we looked & allowed then 'together' our eyes & senses may reveal what we've always known but not been allowed to know.

Because anything goes in this article, I thought I'd do a spot of wild speculating too. I've decided that this is too fun a topic & too open to input, to stop at just one. So I will play further & perhaps deeper in a follow up & I will be very open & interested in the twins that you have always known & sensed, & will be happy to post ideas & pics in the second part - don't be shy, no matter how kooky your twinnings might seem, they are part of a greater awareness.

So to return to the speculation at hand, here is a twinning that caught my eye as I researched an as yet unfinished article. One actor is dead & although I am rather unfamiliar with his features (I think I only saw him once as a boy), the photos of River Phoenix intrigued me because I found myself twinning them 'accidentally' with another actor.

"Phoenix was being considered for the role of Jim Carroll, the drug addicted teen in the 1995 drama The Basketball Diaries and Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclpise. After his death, Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in both roles." Another site puts it a little more tellingly (or should that be twinningly) - "DiCaprio... inherited Total Eclipse from River Phoenix"

"Do you think that leonardo dicaprio was really hot in movie titanic?

Not really. I liked the movie not a leo fan. Everytime I see leo I think of River Phoenix and think if he was alive that would be his part "

"Later in 1993, he (DiCaprio) co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape." - it was outside Johnny Depp's nightclub The Viper Room that River Phoenix died or was sacrificed on Halloween that same year.

"...DiCaprio's strong dislike at being labeled "the new River Phoenix."

While looking for quotes to round of this twinning I seem to have stumbled into a seriously wtf 'twilight zone.' Being from 'Down Under,' I recognised the name Jason Donovan (famous mainly as the boyfriend of Kylie Minogue in the Australian Soap Neighbours - you do know who Kylie Minogue is don't you?). Anyway, this from wiki "In late 1995, (two years later) he attended model Kate Moss's 21st birthday party at The Viper Room in Los Angeles, where he suffered a drug induced seizure." Like River Phoenix he too was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital.



Ok so lets play with ideas.

Actually since finding out that last bit of info the word play doesn't feel quite right - that twinning left an unpleasant taste - altogether too bizarre. Bearing in mind that all feelings & ideas are allowed within this article, I will say that what imaginatively leaps into my mind is an episode, any episode, of Charmed. A feeling of some demon or entity being conjured up as a result of the ritualistic death of a Phoenix before the altar of a serpent/Viper - an entity that perhaps fuels the careers of others. Did this entity need another 'fix two years later? Hey just some fanciful musings - but I think it would definitely work on Charmed.

Let's try some more. Did the Nazi's perfect genetic 'modifications' during WWII & did America import a heck of a lot more 'specialist' Werner von Brauns than we have been led to believe? Certainly I cannot continue without bringing up one of the most unexplored twinnings of all time.


How has this slipped past our radar? - the twinning of two apparently diametrically opposed 'performers'. We're all so familiar with these two images & yet we 'know' that it is 'coincidence' that both have plastered across their features 'the moustache that launched a thousand pics'.

First & foremost that moustache means 'Hitler'. Did Chaplin pave the route for Hitler into the psyche of millions of people (knowingly or unknowingly)? Chaplin rocked the early movie-goers world - he opened up their hearts & waddled right in.

"An advertisement for a Charlie Chaplin film was a promise of happiness, of that precious, almost shocking moment when art delivers what life cannot, when experience and delight become synonymous, and our investments yield the fabulous, unmerited bonanza we never get past expecting."

I just can't help thinking now that that twinning was highly significant & carried an energetic charge that pulsed through Hitler's reign. Chaplin did an apparent spoof of Hitler, called The Great Dictator, although I thought this image was quite illuminating.


To make the wild speculation a bit more intriguing, I was interested to note that Chaplin died in 1977 on the very ritualistic date, 25th December. For further bizarre intrigue, how about this;

"On 1 March 1978, his [Chaplin's] corpse was stolen by a small group of Polish mechanics in an attempt to extort money from his family. The plot failed, the robbers were captured, and the corpse was recovered eleven weeks later near Lake Geneva. His body was reburied under two meters of concrete to prevent further attempts." Makes me wonder...

Anyway to return to the previous speculation. Is Hollywood a mass of genetic 'twinnings' & have we always been aware, but unaware? How weird do things have to get before we say wtf? Actually I just answered that question for myself as I asked it. I was instantly reminded of the lucid dreams I have had - I'm up to four now. With two of them I recall that things had to get pretty bloody weird before I cottoned onto the idea that I was dreaming. This whole twinning thing feels a bit like that, weird, but not yet weird enough to wake people up.

So lets finish with some more weirdeness. Now remember I'm just showing you a few pictures that I've tried to match up to suggest a point. In 'reality' you will have your own intimate connection with these actors - & yes I mean intimate - they've been in your lounges (you may have talked to them, they've probably seen you in your underwear - if you wear any), they've been a part of your conversations, your imaginations, your hearts - either as love or hate energy, you may have fantasized them into your bed (or other places, ok we won't go there). For goodness sake I've seen a whole conversation on the internet about the height of various actors.

So use your intimate knowledge to see & feel this strangeness - you may spot twinning through looks or gestures, the fact that actors do the same movies, play the same characters, perhaps they dress the same... whatever ... lets just pretend that your inner knowing has been trying to show you something weird & you & I have been as thick as two short planks - just kidding (well kind of).

So are you ready to go lucid?

How about a little father or uncle with son or nephew combo - Robert Pitt & Brad Redford.

" I always thought that the likeness between Redford and Pitt could have been much better exploited than Spy Game's effort. They could be father and son. Or play the same character from young man to old. Someone should use it before time runs out."

Another 't-winning' combination spotted amongst the many sites that noted 'coincidences' are Robert Redford jnr (see above) & long lost brother or cousin Benicio Del Toro


For another very popular twinning we return to Johnny Depp & find him a younger brother in Skeet Ulrich.

"I remember a line from "Spade on America" or whatever it was called on SNL... "Skeet Ulrich... Johnny Depp called, and he wants his DNA back"."

Our next pair got some of the highest hits I came across. Now I was not familiar with Jake Gyllenhaal, although I've certainly seen his name crop up. As such I did not find the pics remarkably similar, but I just had to pay attention to how many people were knowing & not knowing this twinning.



"I've been going on for YEARS about how these two look like freaking twins."

"...back in the day- Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire."

"Does anyone else think that Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal look like twins?"

"Jake Gyllenhaal will be replacing Tobey Maguire in the next SPIDER-MAN"

"Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are co-starring in the drama Brothers together"

Ok I couldn't leave out this pair because I loved the comments. I don't see it as much as the commentators, but that's fine, they seem to be more finely tuned in.


"Nick Nolte and Gary Busey have gotta be the same fucking person"

"Took me years to distinguish between Nick Nolte and Gary Busey"

"Gary Busey and Nick Nolte really look like peas of the same pod."

How about some twinned beauties! Keira 'Portman' & Natalie 'Knightley'


"natlie portman and keira knightly looks so much a like!

"These two gals look alike">

"Keira Knightley looks so much like Natalie Portman that she even used it to get a job"

"When they are in full makeup,their moms can't tell their daughters!"

...and how about a little twister

"Keira Knightley is a mix of Jennifer Garner and Natalie Portman...." - which of course is very interesting because that leads on to another twinning "Hilary Swank and Jennifer Garner (but Garner is way prettier) - sorry no pics on that one I've run out of time, but I have looked & I could see the twinning.

Of course why stick with just movie stars - the players that star across our lives, can be found in other fields (or golf courses) - twinnings seem to abound where money & media converge.

Here's a little knowing, but not knowing that I came across;-
"July 19, 1987 Nineteen years ago today, a golf star was born, as Nick Faldo claimed his first major championship, the 1987 British Open at Muirfield.

It was an amazing feat, in that already, under his alias “Harrison Ford,” Faldo had become one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men, starring in such box-office bonanzas as the Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies."

Beauty in stereo -

"Monica Bellucci and Rachel Wiecz"

I was one twin away from wrapping this post up when these little pixies popped out. I had actually been wondering today, as I've dome before, about the story of how Daniel Radcliffe was 'spotted' just days before filming began for the first Harry Potter movie - dunno, just always found that a bit far fetched - was that just to get the public to accept him & his not overly brilliant acting, because that particular 'twin' was needed for that particular ritual? Meanwhile his brother pixie, Elijah Wood popped 'Down Under' to complete the dual hemisphere wizardry ritual... just wildly speculating, pay me no heed!

And finally for now another pairing that was brought to my attention

"Don't you think Jeff Bridges and Kurt Russell look alike"

I close with a classic example of how knowing but not knowing keep us from combining & honing our intuition into a weapon of mass perception

"I Like Kurt Russell. I can’t understand when people I watch movies with get him mixed up with Jeff Bridges"

I hope you have had some wild & random thoughts of your own & I'd be happy to hear of more twinnings, triplings or whole bloody familings - if you see or feel them them, then on this blog they are 'real'.

I decided yesterday that I would post this for American Thanks Giving Day - partly as a gift to the lovely Americans I have encountered throughout this year, but also because I feel they have been the hardest hit by the movie industry - it's impact, & it has impacted all of us, is I believe even stronger in the land of it's birth. I continue to feel that if we can return energy to the places & times from which it has /is being stolen then we can perhaps reclaim what we have lost.

Cheers & here are a few look alike sites if you wish to peruse.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/archive/index.php/t-42314.html
http://forums.metacritic.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/707108/m/5920061964
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/143688/top_150_actors_that_resemble_each_other.html

Taking a leaf...

I thought I'd take a leaf (or a flower) out of Aferrismoon's blog who in turn took a leaf out of Jenn's at Hidden Dakini & take you with me on a walk I had today around the Auckland Flower Show.



I got to go on a work day & didn't have to pay - need I say more? I'm not a crowd lover & don't enjoy the commercialism, but once I cottoned on to the idea that I could turn my trek into a visual tea party for travellers traversing the blogosphere I had a bit of fun.

So here for your viewing pleasure are some highlights from the 2008 Flower Show. Apologies for the quality of some of the pics, plus the battery in the camera dried up - still this is what I ended up with.



This bird is a Tui, one of my most favourite NZ birds. They have a little tuft of white feathers that fluffs out at their throat & a kind of hooked beak for drinking nectar from flowers. They make the most amazing delicious sounds;

From wiki "... are known for their noisy, unusual call, different for each individual, that combine bellbird-like notes with clicks, cackles, timber-like creaks and groans, and wheezing sounds...Some of the huge range of Tui sounds are beyond the human register... Tui will also sing at night, especially around the full moon period."

Here's a little snippet, but is only a small range of their abilities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCeL2yq9eQQ&feature=related

And now for a few pre-flat battery pics. There was a very clever Cleopatra display made out of vegetables, but I'll just have to leave that to your imagination.
























I have just stepped into my weak-end - which is something we in NZ do before the rest of the world. Hope you have a good one.
Cheers