The Sun Ring, Atlantis, and the Cheese Wheels of Time

During the 70-day London 2012 Torch Relay period, two major astronomical events have taken place. The Venus Transit is the subject of the previous post. Here, I will examine some of the broader symbolism concerning the annular eclipse of May 20th to 21st of this year. Much of this continues to be relevant to the present day, and the study of this symbolism could provide deeper insights into the coming Olympics and the subsequent unfolding. 

Omens and Portents

The Olympic Torch arrived in the UK on May 18th, and its 70-day journey through the underworld began on May 19th and will come to its conclusion next Friday. So far, it has been a wild ride.

May 18th was the same day on which the G8 (=Gate) Summit started in Camp David. The G8 Summit was originally scheduled to be held in Chicago prior to the NATO Summit on the 20th.

5/20, then, marked the beginning of the Chicago NATO Summit. Many of you will remember that the internet was abuzz, as they are now about the Olympics, about the possibility of a false flag terror attack on the summit. A sample of the kind of discussion many had concerning the potential of a terrorist event/natural disaster/police state takeover in Chicago can be found here.



Thankfully, that while the police did get fairly nasty with protesters, nothing so extreme actually took place. Whether or not an event was prevented or preempted by this type of discussion/warning is another debate, but one surely worth having as very similar dire predictions dog the London Olympics. I'll leave that to others.

Much more interesting for the purposes of this blog is that May 20th/21st also coincided with an annular solar eclipse.

Combined with the Chicago summit, this eclipse attracted a lot of attention. Apparently, for some, it figured into a couple of Nostradamus prophecies, an alignment with Alcyone in the Pleiades, and a significant crop circle. An article summing up these correspondences can be found here.

It's revealing to examine these one by one. The connection of 5/20 with the Nostradamus prophecies seem clear enough. Here's a better translation:

Sun twentieth of Taurus the earth will tremble very mightily,
It will ruin the great theater filled:
To darken and trouble air, sky and land,
Then the infidel will call upon God and saints.

And:

A very mighty trembling in the month of May,
Saturn in Capricorn, Jupiter and Mercury in Taurus:
Venus also, Cancer, Mars in Virgo,
Hail will fall larger than an egg.

The Alcyone alignment is also fascinating if correct. According to this reckoning this particular alignment occurs approximately every 52 years. This corresponds to a Calendar Round of the Mayan Calendar, which was discussed in the last post. Finally there was the crop circle which for many also pointed toward the annular eclipse on May 20th.

The fourfold mandalic geometry is notable in the circle. As we've seen with much of the symbolism being examined here, the number 13 is again prominent as bars in the central circles which multiplied by 4 gives us 52.

Beyond the Pillars of Hercules

Before knowing about the eclipse, and the deeper significance of the day, it was a synchronicity involving the number 52 and Christopher Columbus that got me looking into 5/20.

I was flipping through Finnegans Wake for a bit of bibliomancy (which it is perfectly and intentionally designed for, as we'll see in future posts), and I turned to page 513. Pages 512 and 513 have back to back references to Sirius, along with other material that is personally resonant.

Anyway, when I took another look I found two direct mentions of Christopher Columbus, one on each page. This got my attention because I had been thinking about the 520 years since 1492 as a kind of "great year" of 52 week/decades (2012-1492=520). For this reason it was surprising to find written, "with his fiftytwo heirs of age!" on page 513. This marks another direct connection between Columbus and 520, or 52, in a place already loaded with meaning for me.

All this led me to look up Columbus and I found that he died, weirdly enough, on May 20th. This in turn led me to discover that an annular eclipse was occurring this 5/20, and finally I found the information outlined above. Naturally this fed back into and amplified my original sync about Columbus and 1492.



William Blake was also interested in Columbus' "discovery" of America, but for reasons that concern poetry far more than history. Although, for Blake, as for this blog, poetry always trumps history.

The passage from the Eastern shore of the Atlantic to the West symbolized for Blake the reunion of Atlantis. Unlike Plato, Blake did not think Atlantis had sank but, as we see by examining the matching coastlines of Europe, Africa and the Americas, that it had been sundered into opposing hemispheres. Blake saw Columbus' discovery of America back in 1492 (a "discovery" at least in a public, exoteric sense) as marking the first step by which the two shores of the Atlantic would become united. "Atlantis" would rise again.

 

The year 1492 is interesting for several reasons beyond Columbus. The Jews were expelled from Spain that year on the very significant holiday of Tisha B'Av, a holiday on which both Temples were earlier destroyed (as I'll get into later). 1492 was also the year 7000 in the old Byzantine calendar and millennial sects across Russia were convinced that the end of the world was at hand. Some Russian Orthodox believers now say that 1492 did represent the coming of the age of Antichrist: America. 

  

Blake also believed that the creation of the United States of America represented the next step in the return of Atlantis. He thought the Revolution of 1776, promising the Atlantean values of Liberty and Happiness for all people, would eventually sweep across and transform the world. The Revolution would ultimately become the Revelation in a process that is culminating presently. In this way Blake agrees with Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, and with later writers like Manly P. Hall and David Ovason, on the occult significance of America.

Thus wept the Angel voice & as he wept the terrible blasts
Of trumpets, blew a loud alarm across the Atlantic deep.
No trumpets answer; no reply of clarions or of fifes,
Silent the Colonies remain and refuse the loud alarm.

On those vast shady hills between America & Albions shore;
Now barr'd out by the Atlantic sea: call'd Atlantean hills:
Because from their bright summits you may pass to the Golden world
An ancient palace, archetype of mighty Emperies,
Rears its immortal pinnacles, built in the forest of God
By Ariston the king of beauty for his stolen bride,

Here on their magic seats the thirteen Angels sat perturb'd
For clouds from the Atlantic hover o'er the solemn roof.

According to Plato, Atlantis was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules. These two pillars have become identified in occult circles with the two outer pillars of the Tree of Life. These in turn are identical to the famous pillars, Jachin and Boaz, of Solomon's Temple. A voyage through the Pillars and across the Atlantic is another way to symbolize the crossing of the Abyss. Atlantis is slowly rising from 1492 to 1776 to 2012 in a great year of 52 decades. 

  

Blake coupled together the two mythologies of Atlantis and the New Jerusalem. For the poet, the two were symbolically the same. He equated the rising of Atlantis with the coming of Zion or the New Jerusalem, and both as metaphors of the turning of the Age. Blake viewed this process as happening gradually. The first step in the rising of Atlantis, really the coming together of the sundered continents of Europe and America, was Columbus' "discovery" of America in 1492.

Is 2012, 520 years after the voyage of Columbus, the culmination of this process? Will Zion come to Earth? Will Atlantis rise again? Will apocalyptic revolution sweep the planet?

It's interesting that some of what is seen today appears to provide an affirmative answer to these questions. In an earlier post, we have seen how the London Olympic Park is assuming the previously fictitious postcode of E20 (or 520). And on July 2nd, well within the 70-day "underworld" period, it was widely announced that diver-scientists had discovered "Britain's Atlantis" in the North Sea.



Is the whole world following Blake? The global revolutionary wave of 2011 is only slightly diminished at the moment, and there are signs from all over that it is on the rise again. And by now almost everyone is aware of the connection between London 2012 and Zion.

Destruction of the Temple

Another strange link with both Zion and 1492, though, is that several researchers have pointed out that the Opening Ceremony of the London Games coincides with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av.

Tisha B'Av is actually on July 28th this year, but this day will mark the beginning of most of the actual competition. In any case, these last few weeks of the "underworld" Torch Relay perfectly coincide with the traditional Three Weeks of mourning which always precede the Ninth of Av.

As noted above, Tisha B'Av is the most sinister date in the Jewish calendar. The destruction of both the first and second Temples occurred on this holiday as well as many other terrible events, including the expulsion from Spain in 1492.

The destruction of the Temples is resonant with the tearing of the Temple veil during Christ's death. All of the events signify moments of revelation. Once again, this date marks the passage across the Abyss. It is obvious that this holiday, while happening at different dates due to the lunar calendar, generally occurs during the Dog Days of summer when Sirius rises with the Sun, finally emerging from the underworld.

 

Lord of the Ring

The dire and millennial predictions involving 5/20 did not come to fruition, and with this perhaps people will caution those making bold statements about what will happen at London 2012. Reality is a trickster.

We should not be surprised that these predictions of the doom-mongers and bliss-cravers did not happen. There were no great earthquakes, no obvious returns of feathered serpent spirits, and no falls of hail larger than eggs. This does not mean, though, that nothing happened as we'll see. At this late stage, researchers should be well aware of how gradually things precede and how subtle the signs are.

It was cloudy in the morning on the day of the eclipse where I live, so I was able to see the full ring of the eclipse, the moon perfectly centred, with my naked eyes. An incredible experience.



Beyond the immediate and beautiful spectacle in the sky, however, is its significance. The annular eclipse appeared towards the very beginning of the 70-day Torch Relay. Like the relay, it formed part of a sequence of astronomical events -- the partial lunar eclipse on June 4th, and the transit of Venus on the 6th. There is an ambiguity involved in adapting any of these as symbols. They have multiple meanings and very subtle nuances.  It is informative to turn to Venus again to illustrate this symbolic ambiguity.

 

Twins of the Morning Star

Venus, in addition to being identified with the goddess Aphrodite, is also called the Morning Star (as well as the Evening Star). In the Bible, both Christ and his adversary Lucifer are described as being the Morning Star. How can this be? Are they not total opposites? Is Venus, then, a good or an evil symbol?
 

As with similar heroes in many other mythologies, however, perhaps these figures are not as adversarial as they first appear. Throughout the world we find stories of heroic twin brothers who are both rivals and comrades. Only within Christianity are these two separated to the point where any co-dependent relation between them is entirely denied.

By adopting a largely dualistic stance in our research, we miss out on the bigger picture which tends to be very subtle, complex, and in constant flux. To bring a rigid dualism into this is to invite great confusion.



As in Mayan mythology, where we see the journey of the Hero Twins, Hunahphu and Xibalanque, to the underworld at the end of the Age, perhaps both Christ and Antichrist appear at once, and perhaps acting together, at the shifting of this Age. Dualistic rigidity could break us in this storm of change.

 

 

Precession of the Cheeses

To return finally to the annular eclipse on 5/20. No, we should not be surprised that what we anticipated did not happen, either the good or the bad. And we should also not be surprised that our prognostications for the Olympics or for 2012 in general will not come to pass as we imagine either.

By now we should know that reality is far more subtle, far more ambiguous, far more mysterious and far more playful than anything we can imagine. Doom or bliss may well be in the cards, but even the highest of the occult elite do not hold all of these. This in itself is empowering, and sometimes we get things right.

The fact is that there was an earthquake on 5/20. It happened in northern Italy. Although alarming, most researchers conceded that this could not have been the one allegedly predicted by Nostradamus. It caused damage, but it was not catastrophic in terms of death and destruction. It was also almost certainly unrelated to the eclipse. The fact, though, that it was a big event -- an earthquake -- made me think that it would be symbolically relevant. It was.

Of all of the intense media coverage, two points were repeated endlessly: the destruction of national heritage, and the damage to the local parmesan cheese industry. The first was captured iconically in the image of the tower split in two along its clock face in Finale Emilia.  



This Reuters photo was endlessly reproduced throughout the media. I saw it on the front page of the Financial Times with the caption "Fractured time" printed below it. There are a few things to explore in this image, but the most obvious message is that time has ended. The wheel of time has been fractured. This is the first symbol.

The second involves the cheese. This appears in an Associated Press story that got taken up by hundreds of media outlets about an Italian cheese producer who woke up to the roar of 30,000 86-pound WHEELS of parmesan cheese crashing to the floor. 


 
Now, 30,000 times 86 equals 2,580,000. The traditional length of the precessional cycle is 25,920 years, but the usual modern, more scientifically accurate, figure is 25,800 years. In numerology, 2,580,000 and 25,800 are of equal value.  

Are these wheels of cheese, therefore, symbolically referring to the greater wheel of time? Is this also the message of the fractured clock tower? Is this the message of 5/20? Robert Anton Wilson called this kind of thing a "cosmic giggle" (although certainly nothing funny for the affected people of Northern Italy).

And to really stretch this -- if we look again at the destroyed clock in Italy and imagine the  longer jagged edges along its face to represent the minute hand and the shorter edge as the hour hand it can be read as 11:32.

1132 happens to be the number most recurrent in the prophetic and enigmatic Finnegans Wake. There are a number of theories for the great frequency of 1132 that scholars have offered. Whatever Joyce's real intentions for repeating this number, one other interesting sync is with the traditional Nepali Sambat calendar. According to this calendar this year, 2012, is the year 1132.

 

There's no real indication that Joyce knew of this calendar, although he obsessively informed himself of languages and calendar systems across the globe. He does include, though, the word "sambat" on page 493 of the Wake, where it follows possibly related words like "rupee" and "Hindustani." Is 1132 the year 2012?

The point of all this absurdity is that meaning can spring from places we least expect it. Is this  real meaning? Are these patterns actually there or are we simply imagining them? But do any patterns exist without our imagination? How are certain patterns assigned "meaning" and others dismissed? Isn't there a certain amount of stretching in even the most respectable of pattern identifying? The cheese wheels of time should both humble and amaze us.

Meanwhile, the underworld Torch is on the last week of its journey through the 33 boroughs of London and, after being carried by a marine abseiling down from a military helicopter to the Tower of London, set out from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the home of the Prime Meridian.

 

The Poetic Epicentre

Just a couple of more related syncs on a personal level before I close. These I hope will show how all of this operates on many layers at once (or it will show how mad I am!)

I'm deep into Dante's Divine Comedy  at the moment and it is fascinating that while the events in the epic take place in AD 1300, Dante started writing the Divine Comedy in 1308 (13:8 again!) Dante's guide through the underworld was Virgil, and it was while I was reading Virgil's Aeneid on 5/20 (the annular eclipse) that there was an earthquake centred near Virgil's birthplace of Mantua. After, while reading the Inferno on 6/6 (Venus transit) there was another rare earthquake in northern Italy. This time the earthquake was centred near Ravenna -- the deathplace of Dante! 



Are these dead poets also involved in the unfolding structure of reality?

The syncs multiply. The world grows weirder at an exponential rate. The dark night rises in horror at dawn. We all need to pay close attention with no preconceptions. Surprises are in store.

Torch Through the Underworld

I am quickly trying to relay information that I've come across about London 2012 before the Opening Ceremony kicks off on the 27th. I feel this background will help to shed light on what is going on.

Into the Duat

Something that does not appear to have been noticed yet concerns the official Torch Relay. This year the relay arrived from Greece to Britain and began its meandering course on May 19th, running for exactly 70 days. What else do we know that begins in mid-May and continues for 70 days? People interested in astronomy and ancient traditions will realize that this is the traditional period of the journey of Sirius through the Underworld, the Duat. This is the time of year when Sirius is invisible to the naked eye on Earth.

It may be that this is exactly what is being represented during the Torch Relay. The lighting of the Cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on the 27th is symbolic of the heliacal rising of Sirius. 

We know, though, that the heliacal rising over London takes place in the second week of Aug. not on July 27th. Clearly, this appears to be a symbolic alignment not simply a physical one.

However, as one great researcher, known as Monk, has calculated, Sirius sets with the Sun on May 17th/18th, when the Torch arrives at the southern most tip of Britain in Lands End, and the Torch is finally put out on Aug. 12th, the last day of the Olympics, when incredibly Sirius rises with the Sun.

 

So far, this is the first mention of Sirius on this blog, but it will be shown in the course of things that this star in particular plays a huge role in the shift of the Ages that may be occurring right now.

The 70 day period of the boat journey of Sirius through the Duat, or underworld, was significant in Egypt because the rising of Sirius with the Sun, later called the Dog Days (Sirius being the Dog Star), coincided with the inundation of the Nile River bringing with it needed nourishment to the Delta and its crops.

 

This 70-day journey of Sirius was honoured in Ancient Egypt in the mummification process. The following is taken from www.king-tut.org.uk :

Egyptian Mummification Process - The 70 Day Rule
The mummification process lasted for a period of 70 days. The 70 day period corresponded to the length of time during which Sirius, the 'Dog Star', appeared to die by dipping below the horizon. The 70 day rule applied to all classes of Egyptians - rich or poor. The 70 day mummification process for wealthy Egyptians was divided into the following activities:

• 15 days spent on cleansing and purification
• 40 days drying period
• 15 days wrapping, bandaging and paintings

 

Is this why the Torch Relay around Britain is exactly 70 days? Have we, collectively, during this time been traveling through the underworld? Again, this seems to be an outrageous suggestion. When we examine other aspects of the Torch Relay, including the Torch itself, perhaps this suggestion becomes a little more palatable (or even more absurd!)

Journey Through the Centre of the Earth

 

The three-sided Torch, among other things, represents the three London Olympics in 1908, 1948 and 2012. In a subsequent posting I will show how the two prior Olympics of 104 years ago and 64 years ago connect with this year's Venus Transit. A fascinating fact, though, is that 8000 holes perforate the Torch.

Why 8000? We are told that this symbolizes the 8000 torch-bearers involved in the relay. But why 8000 torch-bearers? Again, we are told these correspond with the 8000 miles of the relay. This begs the question -- why 8000 miles? It is clear from looking at the map showing the route of the relay that several crisscrosses of Britain are required to total 8000 miles. 

 

So why 8000? A possible answer is that the diameter of the Earth is roughly 8000 miles. The relay around the UK could be intended as a microcosmic journey through the Earth. It is also interesting that the Earth's diameter, being variable depending on location, is often rounded off to 8000 miles or 13000 kilometers. This ratio of 8:13 will turn up significantly in examination of the Venus transit.

 

The 12800 km equivalent given for the Torch Relay is an even more accurate estimate of the Earth's diameter in kilometers, but 13000 km is cited often. Here we have the number 13000 yet again. 

8000 miles would be the rough distance from one side of the Earth, through the core, to the opposite side. This is exactly the journey that Dante took, led by Virgil, in the underworld of the Inferno. In her book on Dante's Divine Comedy scholar Kathryn Lindskoog points out that while Dante's estimate of the Earth's circumference was wrong, we know today that he would have travelled this distance:

To get to the center and out the other side would be a trip of about 8000 miles.

8000 miles, then, is another very strong clue, along with its 70 day duration, that the Torch Relay represents a trip through the underworld. 



There could also be a relation between Dante's trip through the underworld and the voyage of Sirius through the Duat. Dante's journey is set to exactly match the three days that Christ visited and conquered Hell. It also takes place from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. According to the Bible, Christ compared the time he would soon spend in the underworld with the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of the whale. Each of these involves an underworld ordeal lasting three days.



Many Christians reckon this three day period as being 72 hours. Other Christian scholars point out that the period was likely slightly less than this. They speculate that it was 70 hours that Christ spent in Hell, matching the 70 years the Israelites were held captive in Babylon, the 70 week prophecy of Daniel, etc. Is 70 hours in the underworld resonant with 70 days in the underworld? 



On the other hand, Sirius also has connections to 72. Traditionally Sirius is the leader of the 36 decan stars, which are often doubled to 72 dodecan stars.

The World Mountain

When Dante and Virgil finally surface on the opposite side of the Earth they reach the foot of the Mountain of Purgatory (the antipodes of Jerusalem or Zion). Here's what Dante's cosmology looks like:

 

Notice that the Earthly Paradise, or Eden, is on the summit of Mount Purgatory. From here there is an angelic ladder into the seven Heavens and beyond. Here is a closer view of the Mountain of Purgatory with its seven spiraling terraces:




This is where everything meshes perfectly with Danny Boyle's plans for the Opening Ceremony on July 27th. After passing for 70 days on an 8000 mile journey, equivalent to passing through the Earth and its underworld, the Flame lights the Cauldron towards the base of the Mountain of Purgatory -- the Gastonbury Tor.
 


The myths and legends surrounding the Glastonbury Tor are abundant; it is where Joseph of Arimathea brought his young nephew Jesus, it is the location of the Holy Grail, it is the Isle of Avalon, it is where King Arthur is buried, it is a portal to the underworld, etc. A more modern mythology has it as the centre of the Glastonbury Zodiac -- this also matches the circle of 120 animals at the opening ceremony.

The monks at Glastonbury Abbey themselves believed that the Tor was the Mountain of Purgatory. Like the mountain represented by Dante, the Glastonbury Tor also has a spiraling path of seven terraces.


   

The other curious feature about the Glastonbury Tor that concerns us is the alignment it makes every year on the Winter Solstice:

The Winter Solstice Sun will remain close to the Galactic Core for the next few decades. Thus an observer on the Mound at the Winter Solstice is aligned through Glastonbury Tor with the heart of the Milky Way.

In a symbolic sense, the two and a half weeks of the Games is the ascent of Purgatory. Both Mount Purgatory and Mount Olympus are different depictions of the same archetype -- the World Mountain. The Olympic motto of  "Citius, Altius, Fortius" or "Faster, Higher, Stronger" is a pledge to humanity to use all possible excellence to conquer this Mountain. The Olympian athletes strive to reach the great halls of the gods. Dante's own mythology is Christian instead of pagan but the archetypal imagery is identical. 

Is this, then, the greater message of the London Olympics? That after passing through the underworld of the Torch Relay, and scaling up the seven terraces of the Mountain of Purgatory during the Games themselves, we finally, like Dante, reach the Garden of the Earthly Paradise at the summit, and from here is the imminent ascent up the ladder of the celestial Spheres. Is this where 2012 leads to? 

Oaken Door to the Stars

A final clue is that in the Opening Ceremony set the Glastonbury Tor is not capped with St. Michael's Tower, as it is in reality, but with a massive oak tree. This is the World Tree atop of the World Mountain -- the centre of the mandala.

St. Michael himself is appropriate because he is the Cherub with the flaming Sword who guards the gates of Paradise. It is fitting that St. Michael's Tower should guard the summit of Purgatory.

The Oak takes us back to a deeper and older set of symbolism. It is no coincidence that the oak is also the tree most associated with the Door -- doors being most commonly constructed from oak wood. In the ancient Celtic Tree Language, the Ogham, the equivalent of our letter D is "Dair/Duir" which means oak. This exactly corresponds with Delta in Greek and Daleth in Hebrew. This latter is the D of Da'ath, the "hidden" sephiroth representing Knowledge on the Tree of Life (this will be discussed in depth in a later blog entry). 

It is the Door to and from the Abyss, and it is crafted with oak. Will this Door to the stars open up at the end of the Games? 

Midsummer of Ice

Several significant events have happened during this 70 day "underworld" period as the Torch made its way back and forth across the UK. We have looked at Christ's journey to Hell, but significantly thirty is the age when Jesus took up his ministry and it is also the age that Prince William turned, following his birthday on the Solstice. Appropriately, this coincides with the Games of the XXXth Olympiad.

On the net it is possible to come across many theories equating Prince William with the Antichrist. I don't take these things literally, and this blog will later explore the idea that Christ and Antichrist act as mutually dependent Hero Twins, but these theories provide interesting background.

It's interesting, though, that halfway through the 70-day Torch Relay, presumably the darkest point of the Underworld, was the Summer Solstice and Prince William's thirtieth birthday. The brightest day of the year in the upper world is also the darkest night in the Duat. 

In Dante's trip to hell the lowest point, at the core of the Earth where the gravest sins are punished, the Pilgrim finds the horrid form of Lucifer frozen in ice below his waist. The Devil's penis is situated at the exact gravitational centre of the Earth and therefore of the entire medieval universe.

 

A noteworthy aside is that the oak rules midsummer (June 21st), and Prince William's full name is William Arthur Philip Louis -- King Arthur's connection with the oak and Glastonbury Tor have already been alluded to. 

The Vajra Jubilee

William turns 30 and it is the 30th Olympics. 30 doubled is 60 and 2012 also happens to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's reign. This year is her Diamond Jubilee and the celebrations of this are intimately tied up with the Olympics. The Olympic park will later be named the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in honour of the Diamond Jubilee.

There is a bunch of interesting symbolism involved in the Diamond Jubilee, but the diamond itself seems most relevant. In the East, the diamond is symbolized by the vajra which is also the thunderbolt.

In Buddhism and Hinduism the vajra is a symbol of cutting through the illusion of the world, but originally it was wielded by the thunder god, Indra. Indra is the equivalent to the thunder gods of the various other Indo-European pantheons. Zeus, Jupiter, Thor and others all held the power of the thunderbolt/vajra. Along with the thunderbolt, the oak tree is a closely aligned symbol for these same gods.

We notice that in Zeus' most sacred shrine and oracle at Dodona that the oak tree was the central symbol. In the below images, we see Zeus wielding his thunderbolt and Indra holding the vajra. The symbology of the two is identical.

That this cluster of symbolism -- Diamond/Thunderbolt/Vajra/Oak/Door -- is very consciously connected with the Queen and her Jubilee is shown by the fact that the first official event of the Jubilee was the Queen's planting of an oak tree on Feb. 6. Here's an article describing the ceremony and comparing the Queen herself to a sturdy oak:



Just as the ancient thunder gods, with Zeus the Olympian most prominently, acted as guardians of the threshold to higher realms, so the British monarchs as the successors to the gods also guard the Door. The Queen symbolizes the Guardian and during this year of her Diamond Jubilee this symbolism is more resonant than ever. Both the Diamond and the Thunderbolt have the power to burst through the Door.

In the East, the vajra is always coupled with the bell. This is another example of the conjoining of male and female symbols, resonant of the obelisk and the dome. The diamond in the Queen's Jubilee is the vajra and there is no confusion in the fact the Queen, a woman, is bearing a male symbol. As the reigning monarch she is playing a traditionally male role.



The crystal she uses to light the Palace beacon of her Jubilee recalls another event that happened more recently during the 70-day period.



The opening of the crystalline Shard, on July 5th, is another representation of the diamond or vajra. But where is the bell? Oh yeah, at the Olympics -- the biggest in Europe.

Bearers of the Torch

The official mythology of the Olympic Torch counts the Titan Prometheus as the first torch bearer. It was Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity.

It should come as no surprise that the new Ridley Scott movie, Prometheus -- with its ancient
astronaut theme, was released during the end of May and early June, well into the 70-day Torch Relay.

The first modern Olympic Torch bearers are not now as revered as Prometheus, although they too had Promethean aspirations. The modern tradition of the Olympic Torch Relay began with the 1936 Berlin Olympics -- the so-called Nazi Games. Monk has brought this photo, a statue of a torch bearer at an athletic training centre at Ordensburg Vogelsang, to my attention. The statue has the following inscription, translated from German:

You are the torch bearers of the nation. You carry forward the spirit of light in the fight for Adolf Hitler.

Is this also Prometheus? Is this the spirit of the Olympics?

  

It could be, though, that the Torch Relay of London 2012 has a different guiding mythology then Prometheus, at least below the surface. If the torch really is making a 70-day underworld journey then maybe the torchbearer could be more accurately represented as Iacchus. 

Iacchus, usually identified as the god Dionysus, was the torch-bearing attendant of Demeter to Hades to rescue Demeter's daughter Persephone. In the ritualized reenactment of this myth during the Mysteries a dual torch-bearing youth led the procession of initiates from Eleusis. Along the way people shout out in joy to him, "O Iakkhos! O Iakkhos!"

Iacchus was called "the light-bringing star of our nocturnal rite" by Aristophanes in his play The Frogs. The star mentioned was most certainly Sirius and, if so, this takes us back to the theme of the 70-day journey of Sirius through the Duat. Are the same mythological themes being repeated in Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, and Modern Olympian ritual settings?


 

The Epic Underworld 

Demeter's journey to the underworld is of course not the only in classical literature. In Homer's Odyssey, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, Odysseus, finds it necessary to visit Hades to speak to Tiresias in order to attain knowledge about his return home to Ithaca. Here he is shown harangued by the "shades":

 

Eight hundred years later the story continues with Virgil's Aeneid, although the Roman poet takes the side of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, and often calls Odysseus deceptive and cruel. Aeneas himself is led through the underworld by the Cumaean Sibyl, a prophetess of Apollo. The Sibyl will play a major role in history elsewhere, as we'll find out. In Hades, Aeneas is allowed to see the future leaders of the Roman Empire.



It's fascinating that 1300 years after Virgil the story still continues. In Dante's Divine Comedy, it is now Virgil who is leading the Pilgrim through the underworld. From Homer to Virgil to Dante this story, told in epic verse, has continued for more than two thousand years. But the underworld journey is much older than even Homer. We can find this same ordeal in the Epic of Gilgamesh, dating from the 18th century BC.



Is the story continuing even now with the 70-day Torch Relay through the underworld for London 2012? Could it be reaching some sort of a climax?

Maybe the biggest error researchers can make is to assume that one event will change everything. There are huge events -- certainly 9/11 was one of them -- but mostly the events/rituals that we've been tracing take on more meaning when looked at as a process or a sequence. 

The Shadow Surfaces

Much has already happened already during this 70-day period, and plenty that is "underworld" in character. There have been reports of zombies, vampires and giant mutant spider attacks. Several sinister international meetings have been held. There have been wars and rumours of wars. There have been huge demonstrations. There have been multiple attempts to stave off total economic collapse. Massive obelisk-like towers have been erected. Things appear to be on the boil.



In addition to the spectacles held on Earth surrounding the Queen's Jubilee and, to a much lesser extent, Prince William's coming of age birthday, there have also been signs in the Heavens. There was a relatively rare annular eclipse of the Sun on 5/20 (its ring perhaps reflecting the Olympic rings), and the biggest astronomical event of 2012 -- the return transit of Venus. These will be the subject of the next post.  

The intent here is not to cause fear and alarm -- quite the opposite, as awareness is strength. This blog is also open to the criticism that it is finding patterns where none really exist. The point, though, is that many others are finding the same patterns. This phenomenon in itself -- call it collective delusion if you want -- is worthy of close study. Why is it happening?

If the pattern does exist, though, if the 70-day, 8000 mile Olympic Torch Relay does represent a journey through the underworld, a kind of mass initiation, then what happens next? What happens when Sirius, both symbolically and physically, rises with the Sun? What happens when the Torch appears in the Stadium and the great Cauldron is lit at the base of the World Mountain? If this is collective delusion it is far more entertaining than anything out of Hollywood. Hold onto yer hats!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer 

To banish all fear, here's William Blake at the end of Jerusalem  with what I hope will be the real outcome of London 2012:

Awake! Awake Jerusalem! O lovely Emanation of Albion
Awake and overspread all Nations as in Ancient Time;
For lo! the Night of Death is past and the Eternal Day
Appears upon our Hills: Awake Jerusalem, and come away!