Symbolism @ MindSay

As I've mentioned, I post more when people are reading. I was so pleasantly surprised to see Kenzi back to replying on this thing, bumping my total number of regular readers to two and a half, which makes me feel nice. "Distractionary" by the way, is officially a word, immortalized on this site.

Here are three short pieces I wrote, the first two of which I submitted for class.

Sympathy for a Busted Aglet

So few people know
what an aglet is
much less care, but
to me it’s just another example
of how something can be snagged,
trod underfoot,
frayed,
disintegrated
and discarded.
(How like all those someones we know.)
And we miss it,
we do,
when it’s gone,
leaving bare
the frayed shoelaces
that can’t keep themselves together.

When I looked up...

When I looked up out the window,
I saw the city sunk into a thick milky fog
like how I imagine the foot
of the waterfall
at the edge of the world
(the facts-be-damned disc planet
spinning in space
I prefer to think about.)
How wonderful a thing,
to sit there on the edge,
fishing at the stars.

For Some Reason

Her warm breath on my lips,
sweet like Champagne,
lingers there for minutes.
And for some reason
when I talked to her
I put on this crazy British accent
like I don’t really want her
to know what I’m like.

Keep on rockin'
-Scott

PS You can click the word "Aglet" to get the dictionary.com definition of it. Strangely, people didn't care for the brachets in that piece but I kinda like em.

I left off Joseph Campbell's The Power of Mythology with the eagle holding the 13 arrows on page 27.

The eagle is the bird of Zeus. In relation to the US one dollar bill, the eagle is coming down into the field of time.

The eagle descends into the world of the pairs of opposites, the filed of action. One mode of action is war and the other is peace.

The 13 arrows symbolize the principles of war and in his other talon the eagle holds the laurel which represents peace. Or the art of peaceful conversation.

All of this is on the dollar bill, put there by the founding fathers, interesting symbolization in my opinion.

What does the eagel represent? Accroding to JC the eagle represents what is indicated in the radiant sign above his head.

There are also nine feathers in the eagle's tail.  9 is the number of the descent of the divine power into the world, and when the angelus rings, it rings nine times.

The Angelus is a devotion in memory of the Incarnation in Christianity. It has its name from the opening words, Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ. It consists of three texts describing the mystery, recited as versicle and response alternately with the salutation "Hail, Mary!" This devotion is recited in Roman Catholic, in Anglo-Catholic and some Lutheran churches three times daily, traditionally about 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m, accompanied by the ringing of the Angelus bell. This is still rung in some English country churches, and has often been mistaken for and alleged to be a survival of the curfew bell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus

Over the eagle's head are 13 stars arranged in the form of the Star of David.

As a Jewish symbol

According to some Judaic sources, the Star/Shield of David signifies the number seven: that is, the six points plus the center. The earliest extant Jewish text to mention it is the Eshkol Ha-Kofer by a Karaite named Judah Hadassi, from the 12th century CE:

"Seven names of angels precede the mezuzah: Michael, Gabriel, etc. ... Tetragrammaton protect you! And likewise the sign, called the 'Shield of David', is placed beside the name of each angel."^[1]

The number seven has religious significance in Judaism, e.g., the six days of Creation plus the seventh day of rest, the six working days in the week plus Shabbat, the Seven Spirits of God, as well as the Menorah in the ancient Temple, whose seven oil lamps rest on three stems branching from each side of a central pole. And so on. Perhaps, the Star of David came to be used as a standard symbol in synagogues because its organization into 3+3+1 corresponds to the Temple's Menorah, which was the more traditional symbol for Judaism in ancient times.

Exact origins of the symbol's relation to Jewish identity are unknown. Several theories were put forward. According to one hypothesis^{[citation needed]}, Star of David comprises two of the three letters in the name David. In its Hebrew spelling (דוד), it contains only three characters, two of which are "D" (or "Dalet", in Hebrew). In ancient times, this letter was written in a form much like a triangle, similar to the Greek letter Delta (Δ), with which it shares a sound and the same (4th) position in their respective alphabets, as it does with Latin. The symbol may have been a simple family crest formed by flipping and juxtaposing the two most prominent letters in the name.

Some researchers have theorized that the hexagram represents the astrological chart at the time of David's birth or anointment as king. The hexagram is also known as the "King's Star" in astrological circles, and was an important astrological symbol in Zoroastrianism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_david

I almost got lost in the word mezuzah! It's funny how reading about all these things leads me from one place to another...

According to JC the Star of David used to be known as Solomon's Seal.

Kabbalistically, the Star/Shield of David symbolizes the six directions of space plus the center, under the influence of the description of space found in the Sefer Yetsira: Up, Down, East, West, South, North, and Center. Congruently, under the influence of the Zohar, it represents the Six Sefirot of the Male (Zeir Anpin) united with the Seventh Sefirot of the Female (Nekuva).

Again, this is form Wikipeia, the same page....

"Solomon used to seal monsters and giants and things into jars. (Sic) You remember in the Arabian Nights when they would open the jar and out would come the genie? I noticed Solomon's Seal here, composed of 13 stars and then I saw that each of the triangles was a Pythagorean tetrakys."

For tonight this is enough. The next part is a long explanation of the Star of David, Solomon's Seal and the universe.

Good.  Bad.  Mysterious.  The number 666 and the number 777 are ones Christians, mystics, magicians, and even some Pagans attribute special meaning to.  It is assumed by many that  #666 is all about the Devil and those same folks consider #777 to be the number of God.  No matter what side of the spiritual fence you're on, I'm sure you've wondered what the big deal is over these numbers.  It also begs to be said that most people don't have a clue about the true meaning behind these numbers.  Even those who swear to their God that what they think is true, have not done the research or collected the historical symbolic information about the folklore of these numbers with an un-biased nature.  In this article, I will attempt to try to narrow the meanings down to come up with an educated guess about the hidden meaning and connection between these numbers and propose my own prophetic vision about the psychic vibrations behind July 7, 2007. 

 

First, why is #777 so special?  And why is #666 supposed to be evil?

 

The following assumptions concern the number seven hundred and seventy seven:

*  The Christian concept of God created the Heavens and the Earth in seven days

*  Any number in the power of three is considered a "trinity" number and trinities are considered holy

*  If 666 is bad, then 777 must be good since it's more than a triple six

 

What makes the number 666 the supposed evil counterpart of number 777: 

*  The number 666 is the identifying Number of the Beast found in the Book of Revelation 13:18 (King James translation): "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

*  666 is believed to literally refer to the Roman Emperor Nero whose name, written in Aramaic and valued at 666 using the Hebrew numerology of Gematria.  Nero was often regarded as a Beast by many.

*  666 is representative of man being created on the sixth day according to the story of Creation in the Bible and making this a trinity number it has been suggested that it is the number of man succumbing to nature as a beast.

*  The fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (try saying that six times!) and supersition surrounding the number 666 is the cause for many unfortunate accidents and events in the Western world.

*  In other cultures, such as the Chinese, 666 is considered very lucky and welcomed as a good omen because in their language 666 sounds like "things going smoothly!"

*  666 has been the inspiration for a lot of great heavy metal songs.

*  666 and 777 have been especially lucky numbers for Aleister Crowley, the famous Occultist who often referred to himself as The Beast because the letters of his name in Hebrew sum up 666.  The number 777 is also the title of a book Crowley wrote.

*  666 is NOT officially used by REAL Satanists because to use that number is to be siding with the Christians about the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the true author of the number 666 (in other words, he's the guy who brought it up in the first place) not Lucifer.  Real Satanists do not use 666 to mock God and those posers who use the number to intimidate other people are just fools. 

(for more crap on 666 refer to my post from last year: Are You Ready for 666?

 

The real truths behind the number 777:

*  777 represents luck.  To get these numbers on a slot machine in a casino means money! (duh!)

*  777 comes from the Kabbalistic diagram of the Tree of Life; a mystical concept used to represent the nature of God and Creation. On the Tree of Life there are 10 Sephirot (enumerations that are the ten attributes that God created through which he can manifest in the physical and metaphysical universe) and 22 paths which interconnect the various Sephirot. Following these paths and Sephirot is a mystical concept called the flaming sword which has the Gematria (numerological value applied to each letter in the Hebrew alphabet that, once calculated correctly, can give hidden meaning to each Hebrew word) of 777.  The Hebrew letter zayin has the number 7. Zayin means sword. The number 777 literally means 'sword, sword, sword'.  There are many other words and phrases that equate 777, many of them not very holy.

*  "777 and other Qabalistic writings" is a collection of papers written by Aleister Crowley. It was edited and introduced by Dr. Israel Regardie (founder of the Golden Dawn), and is a reference book based on the Hermetic Qabalah which also forms the basis of the Western Magical tradition that influenced just about every occult movement formed since the 19th century. The title refers to a lightning flash descending down the diagrammatic worlds of the Tree of Life looking like three "7"s.

*  In numerological divination, 777 is:  7+7+7 = 21 and 2+1 = 3.  7 is a number of introspection, planning, invention, and insight.  It is most often related to religion because of that root meaning.  A number that appears as a double or triple, like 777 or 33, is considered a "power" number and the root meaning of the single digit number has been increased.  The number 777 is particularly auspicious because it triples the power of seven, however just like the meanings of Tarot cards, every number has both positive and negative vibrations.  The negative side of the number 777 is pure escapism, introversion, and strict religious tradition.  Since 777 equals a 21 which equals a 3, the number 777 has a foundation in creativity, action, and expression.  The Karmic Challenge of 777 is 21 which is one to successfully obtain knowledge about the world and its people.

*  No where in the Holy Bible is there a mentioning of the number 777 representing God.  The number seven is significant and powerful, but tripling that number doesn't increase the original meaning of seven in the Biblical sense.    

 

My intuitive feelings about 777: 

*** Based on the information I've compiled, and on my own intuitive impressions, it seems that the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year will be one that many, on the surface, will consider lucky, but in truth the numerlogical vibrations of this number will bring significant challenges and spiritual quests.  People will be either be abandoning or adopting extreme fundamentalist ways of thinking -- the challenge is holding on to tradition while also trying to be open to new ways, a particularly tough balance to achieve for newlyweds who have chosen this day to be their luckiest one but will soon find it a vibration that will bring tough choices and challenges dealing with fidelity. 

*** Religion will be a deep factor in the lives of all -- whether or not you believe or practice a religion, the way others believe and think has the potential to free the mind or oppress it.  More "fluffy" thinkers will believe that the number 777 is about angelic forces and that this day will mark a significant milestone in the spiritual salvation of the world.  However, I tend to see it as a much darker indication that religious fundamentalists in the world will continue to wage their wars in the name of God to the point where more and more people will begin to reject religions that ask followers to committ divine vengence and ritual suicide.  The "true" apocolypse will be one that ends the belief systems that many zealots depend on to avoid reality. 

*** The true Anti-Christ will be using the number 777 as his trademark and will most likely proclaim himself to be a Christian! 

 

Whether or not you believe in the hidden meanings of numbers, you can't deny the cultural effect they have on people of all walks of life.  My other, more mundane, prediction for 7-7-07 is that it'll end up being another ordinary day like 6-6-06 was last year! 

 

Here's the astrological forecast for today's vibration:

The enthusiastic Aries Moon forms a first quarter square with the sensitive Cancer Sun, emphasizing the difference between how we feel and what we express. We react emotionally, yet withhold any outward display. A spiritual Sun-Neptune biquintile can be confusing as it encourages us to further detach from the real world. Nevertheless, our imagination is quite rich with metaphysical treasures if only we are willing to explore these hidden realms.

There's a video that, upon first watching it when I was fourteen, scared the crap out of me: "Adult Education" by (of all people) Hall & Oates. I was never a big fan of this duo, but this song in particular hit home for me because I was at the age when I was first discovering and exploring my sexuality. Yet that's not the only reason why this song still gets to me. It was the video!

First, some back story... The spring of 1984 (the time when this song hit the top ten on the charts and was getting a lot of air play on the radio) was at the hieght of a Satanist hysteria in the Midwest and the South. Not only did we have The Bomb that could bring about the end of the world at any moment to worry about, families were being warned that there were Satanist groups out there preying on children. For some reason Satanic Ritual Abuse was running rampant. People were going through therapy claiming that they were abused as children by Satanists. And, for some reason, anyone could be a Satanist. Dressing all in black could mark you as a possible Satanist. So, the perfect way to rebel in order to get attention (plus get sent home from school), was to dress in black, wear gaudy jewlery, and carry Dungeons-n-Dragons material with you where ever you went. I lived in the buckle of the Bible Belt (Springfield, Missouri, the headquarters of the Assembly of God church) and it was not a friendly place to be for an imaginative, rebellous teenager in the 1980's. I have to admit, however, that some of the scare tactics people used at the time to convince us that there was this Satanist threat, really did a number on me. Until I learned that it was just another bull shit way for adults to get children to behave, I developed anxiety over seeing any kind of symbolism as something seemingly demonic -- basically anything that was unusual, artsey, or culturally different was experienced as forbidden and, therefore, felt forboding. Still being a child, I was prone to follow suit and make up my own fantastic lies about The Satanic Threat. At the time I didn't know shit about Satanism, never met anyone who was a Satanist, and was totally ignorant about real magical ritual.

Well, all that innocence changed after my mother sent me to a cult deprogramming camp for a week in May of 1984. After I was caught sneaking out late at night to play Ninja with my friends (and, of course, we were all dressed in black -- we were pretending to be Ninjas, afterall!) my Mom was convinced I had been seduced by the Devil. I don't want to go into the gory details of my supposed "deprogramming" but what I want to tell you is that it taught me how to lie and pretend to be someone I wasn't just to please my Born Again Christian mother. I had not been in congress with The Beast nor was I out drinking goat urine nor was I performing Satanic rites with the neighbors. I would've never known ANYTHING about Satanism or magick at all if it hadn't been for that fake deprogramming experience. So later in life I became the very thing the community feared; a Witch. But that's a whole 'nother story...

When I hear or see the video for this song, I am reminded of those times, and how I used my first initial negative reaction to the video as a way to scare the beejeezus out of my community! I first thought the video was a recording of a Satanic Wedding! I considered the old fart with the baseball cap to be a Satanic High Priest. The cave that they're in, I was convinced, was an underground temple where bloody sacrifices were made and virgins were deflowered in the name of Lucifer! Weeks later I learned the truth; I saw Hall & Oates talking about the video on MTV, how it was a symbolic experiment on the part of the director, Tim Pope. Everything was, innocently enough, made up as a metaphoric emotional journey of old man passing on his adult wisdom to a young teenage couple about to copulate for the first time. Instead of showing a stereotypical class room scene, the musicians and actors are seen in the womb of Mother Earth -- a place where all things begin and where life is nurtured. In the first sequence, the symbol for Leo is shown on a paper lantern. In another opening sequence, there's a lighted disco floor with six symbols for food, fertility, time, the seasons, and the elements. When the couple is standing before the old fart, he holds a makeshift Statue of Liberty before them and he seems to be blessing them with it. John Oates later said the video resembled the "Survivor" TV show on acid. What I got out of it? A great music video that I could use to add fuel to flames of the Satanic hysteria around me.

I later regretted boldy claiming that I knew it was a portrayal of a Satanic Wedding. It got me into more trouble for watching it, plus I was barred from listening to pop music for a long while and my mother tore apart the posters of Duran Duran in my bedroom (that made me weep like a baby for that). Now, as an adult, I can laugh about those earlier times, and laugh at myself for being such a silly girl! I now know REAL Satanists and they are nothing like what I was taught to believe about them. Satanists don't abuse children or themselves, what they're about is rebelling against conformity out of the common sense of post modern American Atheism practiced with ritual psychodrama (a group working method, in which each person becomes a therapeutic agent for others using strong elements of theater, often conducted on a stage with props and masks). In fact, as I've gotten wiser in my later years, I've grown to realize that the true abusers of children are often people with Christian backgrounds -- people who sacrifice their teenagers to God and forbid them from engaging in their natural instinct to explore their sexual feelings. When you're taught to regard your genitals as ugly or dirty, everytime you have sex later in life, you're going to fulfill the prophecies of your God-fearing, body-hating parents.

I know, I know, this is a lot to swallow, all inspired by me looking back on a memorable music video from the '80's! But it serves to show that, even now, as an adult I can still learn from my past and can appreciate things I didn't know about then as an adult now. Does that make sense?

 

Here's the video in its full glory. Watch it and tell me what you think about it.  I'd be interested to see what a newer generation has to say about the song and the accompanying video (I still like it and count it as one of my favorite songs from the '80s):

Adult Education

It's afternoon in the homeroom they're about to let you go
And the lockers slam on the plan you had tonight
You've been messin' around with a boyfriend maybe better left alone
There's a wise guy that you know could put you right
In the lot the boy that's idling by doesn't rev your heart
Cause it's only lonely spots he shares with you
The long halls not the grey walls are gonna split apart
Believe it or not there's life after high school

The student body's got a bad reputation
But what they need is Adult Education
Back to school it's a bad situation
But what you want is an....Adult Education

The teacher don't know about how to deal with the student body
And the underclassmen are flashing hot and cool.
All you girlfriends care about the watch and wear and talkin' about it
Believe it or not there's life after high school

They're calling it a preparation
You're waiting for a separation
You're nothing but another odd number
Memories you won't remember
So you got a little education
And a lot of dedication
But you want a little nite school
Maybe some of it'll rub off on you
The boys are busy in the mirrors
Trying to imitate their heroes
You make it with false surrender
More memories you won't remember
The seniors with the Junior Miss' ah
I wonder what the junior wishes
That she could graduate to adult
That she could graduate to adult kisses.

 

Micah Halpern writes an instructive essay on the value of symbolism in the Mohammedan mind. He gives the West an idea of the destructive intentions of Mohammedans by comprehending the Mohammedan perception of symbols.

The Khaibar missile of Hezbollah is ripe with symbolism from how the pseudo-prophet Mohammed slaughtered a Jewish city in Arabia for resisting conversion.

This is the Mohammedan Arab mentality toward Jews and Israel. The name Khaibar refers to the goal of the utter destruction of Jews.

I am actually beginning to hear people talk like that is okay, for then there would be world peace. Holy Jesus of Nazareth WAKE UP! The Islamofascist Jihadists will name their next missile Kafir. The symbolism will be convert or die. The Islamofascists are a death-cult.