Bee Seeing You Through the Veil

This is part 5 of a series: Heart Shaped Coffin, Opening the Stargate, The Journey Back Home, Purification, and Bee Seeing You Through the Veil. It's not necessary, but I imagine it would be less confusing if you've read the previous parts of this series before continuing on below.

The above mosaic is part of the ancient Tel Shiloh church, also known as the Church of the Ark because the ark of the covenant was kept there in a pre-Temple of Solomon enclosure until it was taken by the Philistines. It features a double-square with hexagonal star (symbol of the heart chakra) in the middle, near the wall (where the man in the blue hat is pointing), as well as an equal-armed templar cross (in front of the man in the white) and a shit load of vesica pisces. The whole section is contained in a cirlce that is contained by a square. The symbol of the Double-Square in the center of this image forms an Octagon and is found in many important areas of esoteric and religious symbolism. I mention double-cubes in relation to magickal altars and in relation to the Labyrinth in Pan's Labyrinth:

Prehistoric labyrinths are believed to have served either as traps for malevolent spirits or as defined paths for ritual dances. During Medieval times the labyrinth symbolized a hard path to the God with a clearly defined center (God) and one entrance (birth). [...] The labyrinth is located in the nave of the Cathedral. Aleister Crowley insisted that his student magicians construct their altars with two perfect cubes stacked atop one another, “symbolizing the Great Work... The height of the altar is equal to the height above the ground of the navel of the magician. The altar is connected with the Ark of the Covenant, Noah’s Ark, the nave (navis, a ship) of the Church, and many other symbols of antiquity.”

The nave of church is where labyrinth is located, which is a symbolic of (re-)birth, where, in antiquity, 7 male and 7 female virgins were "sacrificed" after doing the hobbling dance to the center. The hobbling dance represented the lame king, also known as the Fisher King, and his lame leg represented the failing virility/vitality of the king.

Another navel/navis connection is Navel Oranges, a variety of seedless oranges which contain "a partially formed undeveloped fruit like a conjoined twin." (Remember Philip K. Dick's twin-god cosmology? The Gnostic view that the evil demiurge (Yahweh) left the womb only partially developed, accounting for his insanity.) All navel oranges come from the first tree which produced this mutation, and are propagated through cuttings grafted onto other trees. Oranges are "Golden Apples" which grant immortality, what if that first tree was the Tree of Life in Eden? I previously mentioned there being 7 oranges tumbling down the stairs in The Ninth Gate. Oranges ("Golden Apples") show up in a number of movies, such as when Kevin Bacon's character craves orange juice after his third eye is pried open through hypnosis in Stir of Echos. Oranges have 10 sections, bringing to mind the double-pentagram of the apple cross-section from the previous posts. "Apples and Oranges" brings both items together in a slang term for opposites (duality, yin-yang, black and white, etc). Having no idea where to go with this post, I'll just follow a synch in a recent movie I watched, Merlin, a made-for-TV movie starring Sam Neil as Merlin. The movie follows the life of Merlin more than that of King Arthur and only barely mentions the quest for the Holy Grail. The opening credits for the movie shows Merlin riding towards the semi-mythical "island" of Avalon.

Where there are apples in myths there’s usually serpents or dragons. The Celts called Eve’s paradise Avalon, or Apple-land, the land across the western sea where heroes and gods fed on the apples of immortality. (Blue Apples)

Two thousand years ago, the sea washed right to the foot of the Tor, nearly encircling the cluster of hills. The sea was gradually succeeded by a vast lake. An old name for it is Ynys-witrin, the Island of Glass; "island" because, from most angles of approach, it would have looked like one, but it is from Celtic legend that the name Avalon has its true origin - named after the demi-god Avalloc or Avallach, who ruled the underworld. In Celtic lore Avalon was an isle of enchantment. Ancient myth has it that Avalon, where the sea met the land, was the meeting place of the dead; the point where they passed to another level of existence, and the Tor was the home of Gwyn ap Nudd, the Lord of the Underworld, and a place where the fairy folk lived.

(The description of Avalon sounds like "Limbo/Mobil Ave" from my "Purification" post. Limbo = Edge of Hell - My note)

In the beginning, when the legends of mystical Avalon began, Glastonbury, a small town in Somerset, cradled in a cluster of hills in the south of England, was thought to have been a site for pre-Christian worship.

For safe keeping, Joseph (of Arimethea. - My note) is said to have buried the Holy Grail just below the Tor at the entrance to the Underworld. Shortly after he had done this, a spring, now known as Chalice Well, flowed forth and the water that emerged brought eternal youth to whosoever would drink it.

Because of the large number of St.Michael and St.Mary churches situated upon the lines, these energy pathways have been dubbed the St.Michael and St.Mary lines. While the lines are of far greater antiquity than Christianity, it is not entirely inappropriate to have given them such Christian names. St.Michael, or more properly the Archangel Michael, is traditionally regarded as an angel of light, the revealer of mysteries and the guide to the other world. Frequently shown spearing dragons, St.Michael is widely recognized by scholars of mythology to be the Christian successor to pagan gods such as the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Hermes, the Roman Mercury and the Celtic Bel. (crystalinks.com)

thoth conquers a dragon

Blue Apples have also been connected to Blue Stones (notes/tones) in William Henry's work; as seen in deity carvings of an ancient goddess with a necklace of Blue Stones. The Blue Apples famously appear at Rennes Le Chateau which I mention in Opening the Stargate, where I connect grapes with the heart and the continuing theme of Sex & Death.

The Pommes Bleues, or Blue Apples, are apparently the blue circles made from the stained glass window in Rennes Le Chateau; the orbs appear around January 17 every year. The window depicts the scene of Jesus Raising Lazarus from the Dead (Horus raising Osiris/Asaur/El-Azar-us), and the blue orbs rest on the altar with its bas-relief of Mary Magdalene kneeling in prayer with a skull at her knees. (Somehow this is at least the third time I've mentioned Lazarus in this series, it's one of the main themes that keeps coming up, and like in school, if the teacher keeps talking about it - it's probably gonna be on the test!) Gnostic depictions of this scene famously depict Jesus using a magic wand to raise Lazarus who looks like a mummy, very much like his original form as Osiris, the mummified God/Green Man of the Underworld (who concieves Horus after he is brought back to life temporarily (Sex & Death)). The music of the Blues (blue notes/tones/stones) typically use the notes of the flattened third, fifth and seventh scales. Known as long notes or worried notes, blues notes create a feeling of, well, having the blues! For a synchromusikologists interpretation of Blues and the pentragrammic scale (there's that pentragram again!), see The Pentagramic Scale at the Kulide o sKope eye blog. But aside from that, "blue" stuff such as language and pictures usually refer to stuff you don't want your children to read, hear, or see; such as sex and profanity. Not to mention blue-balls of course: pent up sexual/creative energy. Here's some more on Blue Apples and Doves, from Blue Apples:

The doves of Nestor’s cup described by Homer in the Iliad are also thought to refer to the Pleiades. Fascinatingly, the Pleiades have also been likened to a bunch of grapes or Blue Apples. Ancient coins depict doves with bodies formed by bunches of grapes. The dove appeared in migration at the time of vintage, its purple-red breast like wine reminding the wine makers of their grapes. Suddenly, the story of Jesus’ “curing” Mary Magdalene, his chief apostle, of “possession” by “seven demons” takes on New meaning. These seven demons may well be the seven stars of the Pleiades. His “curing” would therefore represent him mystically attuning her soul or telling her stories about the seven stars (or Blue Apples) of the Pleiades.

Mary Magdalene symbolism is found all over Rennes Le Chateau, much of it doing with the number of her feast day, July 22. 7/22 is an approximation of pi and was used in the construction of many ancient sacred sites, and the ratio of 7:11 is found in the Great Pyramid. Connecting back to the previous posts discussion of The Cyclic Cross of Henday and it's Secrect of the Incas: the date for the End of the World, encoded into the cross, was decoded as September 22, 2002 (eerily close to Sept. 11th 2001). The "Sept" in September means 7, because it was the 7th month before January and February were added to the beginning of the calendar; thus this end-date might today be seen as July 22nd, Mary Magdalene's feast day. July 22nd: 22=BB/BeeBee, "2-B or not 2-B." The sting of getting shot by a BB-gun? A Bumble Bee? Speaking of Bumblebees, I had noticed that in Transformers, Shia LaBouf drives the Transformer called "Bumble Bee," and has Ebay username "LadiesMan217" (ladies-man = a drone for the Queen Bee?). 217 is the gematria value for the Hebrew name Deborah - which means Bee. Jan. 17 is the date of the appearence of the Blue Apples at Rennes, and Jan. 17th is the day that Nicholas Flamel first used the Philosopher's Stone (Elixer/Holy Grail).

if you draw an "M," for mary magdalene, using these statues in the rosslyn chapel floor-plan, the first letter of each of the 5 statues spell GRAAL, which means "grail."

Mary M. was called a whore by the church, though in recent history she has been cleared of those charges. I feel that the church had to symbolically call Mary a whore because it is such a big part of the Virgin-Whore-Goddess mythos. Mary the Virgin and (Mary the) Whore. Ok, I'm clearly going off-track, but let's see if I can swing back into the main story. Temple Priestesses were called Bee's/Melissae, as well as Temple Virgins and Temple Whores. Temple Virgins are only "virgins" because they are un-married. They have to have sex at least once to be a temple-virgin, and most would trade sex for temple donations, thus the Virgins were also Whores in a very literal sense. The below picture explains the origin of the "veild goddess" idea, before it was incorporated into Isis, it was part of the myth of Neith. (Neith/Net/Nit was mentioned in Journey Back Home because of her connection to the phallic-arrow symbol) And now we can more easily understand the connection to sex:

mary-vagina-veil pic stolen from the celtic rebel

Andrew Gough ponders if the phrase "The birds and the bees" refers to sexual union "as something magical and sacred, something that needs to be learned by an initiate and which is unknown to a virgin," combining the symbolic Langage of the Birds with the mystery of the virgin priestess Bee. Which goes well with what I've been saying, that sexual symbolism goes hand-in-hand with the Mysteries, especially when concerning initiations.

Bees were discussed at the synchro forum previously as well, which included lots of connections to the Goddess meme, specifically concerning Beyonce ("Beeyonce") Knowles (pic). For much more on Bee/Goddess symbolism I turn to a large quote from the Alchemy Key:

However, the bee also had a very dark side. It remained a primary symbol of the Afro-Asiatic Triple Goddesses such as Demeter, Hecate, Persephone, Aphrodite and the pre-Indo-European aspect of Artemis. Arcadians worshipped both Artemis and Persephone under the name Despoina, which means mistress. Aphrodite, the nymph-goddess of midsummer, would destroy the sacred king by tearing out his sexual organs just as the queen-bee destroys the drone. Her Priestesses displayed a golden honeycomb at her shrine on Mount Eryx. Butes is the most famous beekeeper of antiquity. (Similar to the Bee-keeper Pan. The Bee was the symbol of Egypt, and Beekeeper was the title given to the Pharaoh. - My note) He was a priest to Athene on Mount Eryx who represented the love-god Phanes, son of the Triple Goddess. The Greeks often depicted Phanes as a loudly buzzing bee called Ericepaius. Incongruous with Aphrodite’s beauty, the Greeks also knew her as the Eldest of the Fates, Melaenis or black one, Scotia or dark one (the "Black Madonna" (Beeyonce). - My note), Androphonor or manslayer and Epitymbria, which means of the tombs. (Side note, Scotia was the Egyptian princess (Meritaten, firstborn daughter of Akhenaten) who fled to Ireland and lent her name to the people and land, Scots and Scotia, older terms for Irish and Ireland (also Nova Scotia). - My Note.) Artemis was an orgiastic Nymph like Aphrodite. She was the Maiden of the Silver Bow, which symbolized the new moon. Her male consort received the arrows of death. Besides the bow and bee, her other emblems were the date-palm signifying birth and the stag symbolizing her control of wild things. Artemis’ bees were the melissae priestesses who daubed their faces with gypsum or white clay in honour of the White Goddess. Artemis' chief priest was, as we may imagine, the king bee.

Removing the fertility of the old king disenfranchised him thus allowing the young king to rule. In Egypt Set castrated his brother Osiris, in Sumer, Kumarbi castrated Anu. In Greece, Zeus castrated his father Cronos and Homer writes of Cronos castrating his father Uranus. In Israelite myth Canaan, the son of Ham, castrated his grandfather Noah. The importance of castration is a sign that covenants were cut, not made (As in "cutting a deal." - My note.). The contracting parties severed an animal in two and walked between the pieces that this may happen to me when I break this covenant. This is why circumcision is reserved for a special promise. The separation of the foreskin cuts the covenant that appeases the Mother Goddess’ demand for the sacred marriage with its ritual castration, death and rebirth.

The Goddess demands every man’s phallus. Jewish women offered the foreskin as a substitute for their husband’s phallus. For example, the substitute sacrifice of circumcision even saved Moses: And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him [Moses], and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, a bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. It is a custom observed by the British Royal Family who called upon the Rabbi Jacob Snowman, the respected Mohel of the London Jewish community, to perform the religious rite of Brit Milah with Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. This is also the Covenant of Circumcision. [...] The Bible provides other grand stories of the sacrifice myth. Moses died before Joshua received the fertile land of Israel. King David similarly died before Solomon brought prosperity to the land with the building of the Temple. In the same way, the wounded and impotent Fisher King of the Holy Grail finally passes to his rest before prosperity returns to his wasting land.

Well, getting back to the Blue Apples/Grapes:

Moses and the Israelites were enroute to the Promised Land. Yahweh ordered them to stop short and to send out some spies. One of Moses’ operatives, Joshua, an ancestor of Jesus, was called the “Son of Nun.” Along with a companion, Joshua was dispatched to the valley of Eschol (‘valley of the cluster’ as in grapes) where he stole a cluster of grapes from the sons of Anak who were living there. He returned the grapes to Moses. Nun and the cluster of grapes later became cryptograms that were extremely important to the Essenes, the priesthood of which Jesus was a member, and the Gnostic Grail heretics that they held sacred and secret. The cluster of grapes symbolized the secrets of creation, the secrets of manipulating the mother substance and the symbol for the Grail.

[At Chatres Cathedral], on the ‘Symbolic Window of the Redemption’ we see an identical pairing of the two thieves carrying the cluster of grapes beneath a green Cross. This window illustrates the medieval belief in the concordance of the two stories. Old Testament scenes are grouped together with the Passion of Jesus as if they happened at the same time. In the scene of his Passion, Jesus is shown carrying another ever green cross, symbolic of the life-giving power of the blood of Christ and a reference to the belief that the Cross was made of the wood of the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden. Beneath him is the Old Testament prefiguration, the depiction of Joshua and a companion stealing a huge bunch of grapes upon a staff. According to Isidore of Seville, the grapes suspended on a pole symbolize Christ hanging on the cross, for he is the [Mystic] grape whose blood fills the Grail. In the following scenes on the Passion window, Jesus is crowned with green thorns, once again inviting us to conclude that his starry helmet or crown of thorns was made from the same material (or technology) as the Cross or Pillar. (Blue Apples)

The belief that the green Cross, and green Crown of Thorns came from the Tree of Life reminds me of the idea of the green jewel from Lucifer's crown having fallen to earth (see my post: New Age Ch.9 for more) and was eventually shaped into several objects including a spear (Spear of Destiny) and a chalice - the Holy Grail.

A little known fact is that de Troyes was unable to start [the first ever Grail Romance, Perceval, the Story of the Grail] until he travelled to Spain and studied with a Cabalist, leading scholars to conclude that the Cabala uniquely enables the understanding of esoteric subjects such as the Grail. Some years later, Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote the Grail Romance ‘Parzival’, and in his account we are told that the Grail is a stone from heaven.

This is interesting, given that the word ‘meteorite’ carries the same numeric value (443) as ‘Bethel’ - which translates as Bee in Egyptian. (andrew gough's arcadia)

Bee in Egyptian is Bit/Bet, leading to Bethel which translates to Beth=House and El=God/Lord, or the "House of the Lord" in Hebrew. This could refer to Heaven, from which meteors fall, or even a temple or shrine, symbolized as beehives in the past.

It is also interesting to note that the prophet Muhammad lived in Mecca, where a sacred stone from heaven is worshiped to this day - as it was in Delphi, where Bee Priestesses were consulted as seers. And [...] the most famous of all Grail Romances portrays the Grail as a stone from heaven. Might it also be related to the Bee? (andrew gough's arcadia)

scarab + bee from heaven befriends the cube(cross) symbol

The International Space Station, ISS (or Isis), was threatened by space debris earlier this year: "'It's a bit like a swarm of bees in a beehive up there,' said William Jeffs, a spokesperson at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston, 'the trajectories can sometimes be erratic.'" By studying meteorites which have impacted ice on earth and resisted being blown apart or melted, scientists have learned that they consist of about 20% water (manna/dew from heaven?) and may be the source of all water on earth. Obviously water would be hard to come by in a volcanic proto-planet, so it seems all life on earth may have originated in space where all the nessesary elements including water exist. The Transformers movie contains the "AllSpark," a cubic device which has the ability to give life to things it comes in contact with. (watch Labyrinth of the Psychonaut video featuring the AllSpark) The AllSpark, also called the Matrix, is the Transformers afterlife/heaven: it is intelligent, it contains "all sparks" (souls) of everyone who will ever live, and is also a record of all knowledge and wisdom ever gathered by the individual sparks/souls.


Getting back to the floor mosaics at the Church of the Ark (or Tel Shiloh) we find that the borders are lined with clusters of grapes growing out of krator vases/jars. "Krator" is the name of the style of jar.

The grapes coming out of the Krator/Grail are also a pointer to immortality, and are called Blue Apples by William Henry who believes that the Blue Apples/Stones/Grapes indicate or represent ancient knowledge on the transmutation of elements and possibly ancient electrical or nuclear technology.

An answer for why the Blue Apples symbolize these secrets comes from Harold Bayley who made a massive study of the history of European paper manufacture. He also began collecting the earliest watermarks, which he published in his book The Secret Language of Symbolism. Bayley concluded that, after their persecution by the Church, the Cathars (French Gnostics) and other residents of the Languedoc region were among the earliest paper makers of the Middle Ages. Their watermarks, he says, are nearly all symbols of religious nature, the total comprising a secret language shared by those ‘in the know’. One of their most important marks was that of the Grail. Frequently it was shown as a vessel with a cluster of grapes or Blue Apples. (Blue Apples)

Expanding on the idea of krator jars and craters, Adam of the Inside the Cosmic Cube blog tells us:

In Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", protagonist Tristan (the name of one of the Knights of the Round Table) goes on a quest over the Wall into the Otherworld to retrieve a fallen star for the shallow girl he's smitten with. (The star is named Yvaine, possibly after one of the knights in Arthur's Round Table, and therefore representing a Grail Quest. - My note) In the magical country the star becomes a woman who turns out to be his true love. (This "fallen" star is noted in the movie to be the "Evening Star," which would make it the planet Venus/Lucifer. - My note) Naturally, as she's a fallen star, [Tristan] finds her in a Crater. At [Star Wars'] outset Luke Skywalker, the son of the fallen messiah Anakin Skywalker, lives in a hole in the ground. Not a Hobbity hole, but an open Crater. I think this is a pretty neat item of synchronicity if a Crater is a Grail and the Grail is the Holy Blood.

The thread at the synchro forum was spawned from old Aferrismoon post, X That Bridge, about the movie Starman which features and alien's journey to the crater in Arizona where he is taken up by a giant spaceship with a mirrored spherical surface. The spaceship (see link for larger pic) looks grail-like with it's ring of cosmic dust at it's equator and red beam of light as a stem or pillar beneath it.

In fact, before I realized it was a mirrored surface, I thought it was grail shaped due to the reflection of the earth in it's bottom half. The reflective surface of this grail/enlightenment resonator brings to mind the mirrored "Dragon Scroll" in Kung Fu Panda (which rests in a dragons mouth in the center of an Octagon), and the realization that the I/Eye in the Pyramid/Capstone/Cornerstone is "me, myself, and eye"; the answer to Number 6's question (6th Day God created Man), or Mankind's question in The Prisoner: "Who is Number 1?" Afterall, you "gotta look out for number one," who is yourself, and only your-Self can bring you enlightenment, or passage through the reflective veil into immortality. The Mystery schools gave initiates an experience of self-annihilation, thereby clearing their fear of death as they no longer cling to the fleeting nature of a mortal life. Once one acknowledges that, yes, "I'm mortal," they become "Immortal."

Georg Philip Friedrich von Hardenberg (Also known as Novalis, an 18th century author and philosopher) penned this riddle:

There was one who arrived there.
He lifted the veil of the goddess.
But what did he see?
Wonder above wonder,
he saw himself.

To be continued...

Purification

This is part 4 of a series: Heart Shaped Coffin, Opening the Stargate, The Journey Back Home, Purification, and Bee Seeing You Through the Veil.

So, I was watching The Abyss recently, the character "Jammer" goes into "a coma" after seeing an underwater alien and hitting his air tank messing up the oxygen and nitrogen mixture. When he wakes up later (by now I forgot he was even in the movie!) he says that he thought he was dead when he "saw that angel." Virgil descends into what is described as a "bottomless pit," an extremely deep area in the ocean, and is taken by other underwater aliens to their movable city where a watery veil passes over him, leaving him in an open-air room he can breathe in. Virgil also thought he was dead (his liquid-oxygen mixture was almost empty), but after a brief "life-review" of his last messages of love to his wife, the aliens bring him and the rest of the crew back to the surface (and may even make the storm on the surface dissipate). At the end, Virgil walks out of a cave like opening and sees his wife again. While watching, I realized that this was not the first "ship" which had a comatose passenger that I had seen in a movie.

In the movie Event Horizon, the character Justin/"Baby Bear" also goes into a coma or similar state after being pulled into the black hole which had opened a portal to hell. The ship, the Event Horizon, had utilized an experimental engine which created and contained black holes to bend space-time and jump the ship great distances. (Fourth dimensional tears in space-time was part of a recent post.)

The ship had jumped with it's original crew into hell, and reappeared 7 years later in orbit around the planet Neptune. The Roman god Neptune was god of the seas and carried a trident which resembles the "Devil's pitchfork," which is also the symbol for the planet. The god is associated with the "line crossing" initiation aboard ships which pass over the equator. Justin entered the black hole to hell but was pulled back out. Because of what he had experienced, Justin attempts suicide by blowing himself out of the airlock. He partially succeeds, but is saved by Captain Miller who is played by Laurence Fishborne, who also plays the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar II hovercraft in The Matrix trilogy.

Speaking of The Matrix, in Matrix Revolutions the character Bane-Smith ("Bane" after "Smith" uploaded his consciousness into Bane) goes into a coma, or similar state, sometime after setting off his ship's EMP bomb and sabotaging their mission. No explanation is given, so I guess he was injured during the resulting chaos. Actually, Bane-Smith is already in a coma at the start of the movie, the events mentioned having already have happened at the end of Matrix Reloaded. Also at the end of Reloaded, Neo stops Sentinal robots with his mind-bullets (well, his innate connection to the Machines due to his artificial consciousness created as part of the Matrix Program) and falls into a coma shortly after. At the beginning of Revolutions, Neo is shown lying head-to-head, or mirror image, compared to Bane-Smith; this reminds me of the Shroud of Turin (Jesus' burial shroud in the tomb), where when unrolled completely, reveals a similar image of Jesus' front and back. Neo is described as being in a coma-like state, though his brainwaves suggest that he is jacked-in to the Matrix. Neo is actually in an in-between world, between the Matrix and Real World, a subway program run by "The Train Man." The artificial subway station is named Mobil Ave, which I've mentioned before is an anagram of "Limbo." Limbo (from Limbus, edge), refers to the "edge of hell," not quite hell, where unbaptized babies and other people who died with original sin go.

At the same time that Neo is on "the edge of hell," Trinity, Morpheus and Seraph are on their way to see the Merovingian to bargain for the release of Neo (the "Train Man" works for the Merovingian). Trinity, the love interest of Neo, has already been at the resurrection of Neo in part 1 of the trilogy where Agent Smith shoots and kills Neo and a kiss from Trinity resurrects him. Having a female character named Trinity hints at the female aspect of the Christian trinity, the Dove or Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost/Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is the Archangel Gabriel in Islam whose presence is indicated by the character Seraph, short for the Seraphim, the highest choir of angels. Morpheus, the captain of the ship Neo is on, and the name of a god of dreams (The word coma comes from the Greek word "koma" meaning "deep sleep."), hints at the psychological nature of the situation. These symbolic three make their way to Club Hell where the Merovingian is hanging out. They enter through a underground parking garage, then an elevator whose only button is the red Help button with the "p" scratched off, and into the coat check room where they dispatch various bad guys in typical slow motion Matrix action. The Merovingian's programs/bad dudes are programs which have been removed from the matrix program but chose to stay in exile instead of being deleted. Some of them are vampires, and others can walk on walls or do strange stuff - symbolic of demons I believe. The Merovingian, or Merv, is found drinking a martini with green olives. According to IMDB.com, there is a continuity error when Merv eats both of his olives, but a third one miraculously appears back on his toothpick. The toothpick resonates Thoth, as this psychopomp has been connected to teeth in the past by other bloggers. The olives also appear from time to time in Jake's work, and probably among other blogs. The martini glass is hourglass or even worm-hole shaped, resonating the blackhole and stargates. The green olives Merv is eating have red pits, with toothpick through them, may indicate a "Bull's eye" symbol like Saggitarius shooting his arrow into the opposite sign of Taurus and the bull's red eye/red star. These constellations mark the galactic center and anti-center, respectively.

The olives and olive trees are symbolic in Homeric and especially Christian imagery (which may be why it's used in The Matrix). During his Odyssey, Ulysses almost drowns and washes ashore and finally finds rest under an olive tree. Also, there's a olive tree in Ithica where Ulysses ends his journey. The dove Noah sends out comes back with an olive branch. Jesus does some preaching on the Mount of Olives, and is below the mount in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion. Gethsemane means "oil press," and is also where the Virgin Mary is buried according to the Eastern Orthodox Church. The name of "oil press" probably refers to the production of olive oil which was quite the luxury back in the day.

The olive tree shows up in psychological horror movie Sublime in the backyard of a man who winds up in a permanent vegetative state, which is a type of coma. George Grieves celebrates his 40th birthday and prepares for his colonoscopy the following day (the 23rd of the month). The night of his birthday he waters his dying olive tree and then goes in the house where he and his friends pose for a Last Supper style picture, George taking the place of Jesus, of course. A nurse, Zoe, befriends him in the hospital and she and he have sex at one point where she mounts him facing away, revealing a olive tree tattoo on her back (seen on above poster). The tree has bare branches and Zoe explains that it is the Tree of Life waiting for spring.

The crucifixion is observed around Easter time which is the first full moon on or after the spring/vernal equinox. Spring is symbolic of the suns return (resurrection) to the northern hemisphere when the days become longer than the nights. The date changes every year, but traditionally the 22nd of March is the vernal equinox, George's birthday is also on the 22nd. For his birthday, George's wife gives him a new olive tree from the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives which is a disease resistant variety ("immortal," or at least a better version of his tree).

The whole movie flips back and forth between George's experience in the hospital, which is a "dream" he's having while in his coma, and flashbacks of the day of his birthday. He is on "the edge" between life and death, and must learn at the end to let go and fall. The movie opens with George dreaming of falling and waking just before he hits the ground. His wife reminds him of the Old Wive's Tale that if you hit the ground in a dream - you die in real life. Reminds me of The Matrix when Neo fails to make the leap of faith in the matrix simulation, he hits the street and actually bleeds in real life. Just before the end of the movie, George is tortured by a male nurse who represents fear and who speaks to George before he starts to cut him up: "Ready for a little lesson? To be set free?" "A dose of reality." "Now you're gonna face your fear and you wont be afraid no more. I'm gonna set you free." The hospital which George is stuck in is named Mount Abaddon. Abaddon (also, Apollyon, Appolyon and Appolion) is the Hebrew name of the demon identified as the angel of the bottomless pit, or the abyss (I hope you didn't forget the first movie I mentioned already!); in Revelation 9:11, Abaddon ties up the Devil for a millennium. After his torture, the male nurse calls George heroic, and tells him that now he can do anything. George's last act is to throw himself from his 7th floor window (room 721, 7(7+7+7)) and hits the ground. Back in reality, George's monitors flatline and he closes his eyes, confirming the statement at the beginning of the film that if you hit bottom in a dream, you die in real life.

I started talking about movies where people were comatose on a ship of some sort, which I felt added another level to the symbolism, but there are many more movies featuring temporary coma-like or unconscious states, such as Kill Bill, Face Off, and The Bourne Identity where Jason Bourne is unconscious on a fishing boat after being shot and presumed dead. There's even at least one movie titled Coma.

While thinking about comatose people on ships I remembered the story of Jonah and the Whale. Actually I had not read the story, all I knew was that Jonah somehow ended up in the belly of a whale. God commanded Jonah to warn the city Ninevah that they were to be destroyed by God, but instead of doing his mission Jonah skipped town on a boat. The boat became caught up in a storm which would not dissipate until Jonah got off. As soon as Jonah is thrown off the ship he was swallowed by a whale. The words which have been translated as "whale" simply mean "a great aquatic animal." He spends 3 days and nights in the belly of the whale until he is regurgitated on the shore back at home. So, Jonah eventually did his duity and told the citizens of Ninevah that they would be destroyed in 40 days, and the citizens spent that time praying and repenting. At the end of the allotted time, God changed his mind and let them live (Yeah, I know, it's strange that Old-Testament-God doesn't commit genocide!). And thus, Jonah actually converted, "saved," an entire city at once.

Jonah on left, Jason in upper right,
and 2 pics of Dagon/Oannes

Wikipedia notes a connection to another sea adventure by another hero with a "J" name, that of Jason and the Argonauts: "The story of the hero Jason in Greek mythology shares several similarities with the story of Jonah which have been noted by Joseph Campbell and more recent authors such as Gildas Hamel. Drawing on the Book of Jonah and Greco-Roman sources — including Greek vases and the accounts of Apollonius of Rhodes, Valerius Flaccus and Orphic Argonautica — Hamel identifies a number of shared motifs, including the names of the heroes, the presence of a dove, the idea of "fleeing" like the wind and causing a storm, the attitude of the sailors, the presence of a sea-monster or dragon threatening the hero or swallowing him [...]. The Greek rendering of the name Jonah was Jonas, which differs from Jason only in the order of sounds —both os are omegas." The letter omega is symbolic of death and an ending, "I AM the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end."

Jonah in a symbolic maze/labyrinth

Another "J" named person who symbolically goes through the same thing is Joseph of Arimathea who incurs the envy of his brothers after his father Jacob gives him the coat of many colors. When Joseph was 17, his brothers plotted to kill him, except the oldest brother Reuben who secretly plans to save Joseph. The plot is to toss Joseph into a pit (symbolic Abaddon) and claim that an "evil beast devoured him" (symbolic sea-beast). Joseph is instead sold to passers-by for 20 pieces of silver. The brother's dipped his coat into goats blood and told their father that Joseph had been torn apart by wild beasts.

I thought the above picture of a beached Basking Shark at Hells Mouth Beach resonated with Jonah's whale. Looking for pictures of Jonah on the Whale, I realized what a resonance the whale mouth had with the Hellmouth, or gateway/portal to hell. (Scroll up, and check out those three small pictures for Event Horizon, doesn't the door to the blackhole machine look like a Hellmouth?) The Hellmouth is what Buffy guards in Sunnydale California in the Buffy television series. The name Sunnydale could conceivably mean Sunnyvale as in a "sunny valley," as the word "-dale" refers to a valley. And if this is the case, then Sunny-vale might really be Sunny-veil. But I digress...

take note of the dove above the tower

And perhaps the best known "J" named person who undergoes a similar symbolic death and resurrection is Jesus. Also sold out for silver (30 pieces, with inflation), he was arrested by the "Temple Guards" (Knights Templar?) in the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. He was crucified, died, and was buried. His body was turned over to previously mentioned Joseph of Arimathea, who put it in his own rock hewn tomb.

Jesus "descended into hell," according to the Catholic prayer known as the Apostles' Creed. On the third day, like Jonah, he rose from the cave/tomb/hell/pit of abaddon/abyss/whale-belly. What did Jesus do for those three days? Well he was saving souls in Hell, of course. Like the trinity of characters including Trinity in The Matrix who battled the Merovingians demons and "beat" the Merovingian/Devil in club Hell while Neo was in Mobil/Limbo, Jesus spread the word of God to those who came before him who awaited the Redeemer. "Christ went down into the depths of death so that 'the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.' Jesus, 'the Author of life', by dying destroyed 'him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.' Henceforth the risen Christ holds 'the keys of Death and Hades', so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.'" (- Vatican website) Upon his resurrection, and after 40 days of hanging out with his friends, Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9-12). When he returns, it will be at the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:11 and Zechariah 14:4).

what hope do we have if even jesus goes to hell when he dies?

When Jesus is on the cross, one of the last things he says is "I thirst" (John 19:28). According to popular translation, a spear with a sponge attached was dipped in vinegar and lifted to Jesus' lips. In The Jesus Conspiracy, authors Holger Kersten and Elmar Gruber note that an error of translation was made when the word hyssos, "short spear," was taken for hyssopos, "hyssop." The hyssop plant is mentioned several times in the Old Testament as it was used to spread the lambs blood around the door frame for passover, as well as other sacrificial or purification ceremonies. The hyssop mentioned at the crucifixion may have been another plant species, different from the hyssop of today, or may have just been a stick or branch of whatever plant was nearby. It is theorized by William Henry in Blue Apples that the hyssop used was of a narcotic variety and put Jesus into a catatonic state. Other theories also have postulated that Jesus only looked dead when he was removed from the cross, being in a unconscious state, he was revived later and lived a long happy life with Mary Magdalane, etc.

Strangely enough, there is a true to life version of Jonah and the Whale:

Real Life Jonah: In February, 1891, the ship Star of the East was off the Falkland Islands when the crew spotted an 80' sperm whale. Two rowboats filled with crewmen were launched to capture the monster. Closing in, one harpooner let go his weapon and shafted the whale, which lashed out, almost overturning the boats. Returning to the ship with their dead whale, the crewmen realized one sailor, James Bartley, was missing. It was decided he had been tossed overboard in the fight and had drowned.

Six hours later the crewmen began removing the blubber from the dead beast. By midnight the task was still unfinished, and the sailors went to bed. In the morning, they resumed their job. Then the unexpected happened. According to M. de Parville, editor of the Journal des Debats, writing in Paris in 1914, "Suddenly the sailors were startled by something in the stomach which gave spasmodic signs of life. Inside was found the missing sailor, James Bartley, doubled up and unconscious. He was placed on deck and treated to a bath of sea-water which soon revived him, but his mind was not clear and he was placed in the captain's quarters." Recovering, Bartley recalled being hit by the whale's tail and that he had been "encompassed by great darkness, and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage that seemed to move and carry him forward. His hands came in contact with a yielding, slimy substance, which seemed to shrink from his touch. He could easily breathe, but the heat was terrible. It seemed to open the pores of his skin and draw out his vitality. The next he remembered he was in the captain's cabin."

Except for the fact that his face, neck, hands had been bleached white, Bartley--like Jonah--survived the belly of the monster.

The heat and sucking out of moisture that this man suffered reminds me of Jesus being thirsty, and may indicate the stage of Purification in alchemy, sometimes symbolized by a furnace or sweat bath drawing the soul and spirit out of a body like steam. The three images from Rosarium Philosophorum represent: Extraction of the soul, or impregnation: "Here, king and queen lie dead / The soul departs in great haste. Here, the four elements separate / And from the body the soul departs apace.", Washing or Purification: "Here, the dew falls from the sky / And washes the black body in the grave.", and Jubiliation of the soul, or Birth, or Sublimation: "Here, he soul floats down / And refreshes the purified corpse."

"But the philosophers have described this 'spirit' and this 'soul' as 'steam' (...), and as there is moisture and dryness in man, our work is nothing but steam and water." (Turba philosophorum, Berlin, 1931)

I just had a funny memory while typing the above quote, it is of an old episode of the Batman television series (with Adam West). The Joker (or Penguin, maybe) made a gun which zapped all the liquid out of a persons body and left a pile of dust in place of what had once been a person.

The last thing Jesus said was, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Luke 23:46). Jonah/Ionas means "Dove," and the dove represents the Holy Spirit in the Christian Trinity. The Spirit/Dove entered Jesus at his baptism and at the crucifixion descended into the underworld for 3 days and returned (re-entered Jesus' body) at the resurrection. Jonah (Dove/Holy Spirit) left the world for 3 days (as a coward running from God's will), but after his time in the whale (cave/tomb/pit/grave) he returns as the great prophet and converts an entire city. In my alchemy book, the definition of dove is: "a symbol of renewed spirit or infusion of energy from Above. Chemically, it signifies the change from the Black Phase to the White Phase." (White, like the poor man trapped in the whale who came out with bleached skin?!)

The seventh operation of Alchemy, Coagulation, is seen the in purple area of the Azoth picture. From Sorcerer's Stone, by Dennis William Hauck:

The final, seventh circle shows an androgynous youth emerging from an open grave, with the Latin word Lapidem, meaning "the Stone," on the outer ring next to it. This is the operation of coagulation, in which the fermented child of the conjunction is fused with the sublimated spiritual presence released during distillation. The resurrection of the soul is accomplished by bringing together only the purest essences of one's body and soul into the light of meditation. In other words, coagulation incarnates and releases the purified soul that the Emerald Tablet described as the "Glory of the Whole Universe." At this stage, the alchemists are working with the "new" or resurrected Salt.(Body)

For more wisdom from the depths, check out the now discontinued blog, From the Belly of the Whale.

UPDATE: Also check out these posts which synch with this one: RED ROWEN DUN DA VALE by Aferrismoon, and Sea Serpents by Quinta Essentia. Also, A Burning Ring of Fire IV by Celtic Rebel synched a bit (see my comments there for more).

For anyone following my ramblings on the New Age religion and the Pope, it might interest you to know that in the St. Malachy prophecy which numbered #111 popes and gave each a nickname: the name of #111, the current and last pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), is: "The Glory of the Olive." From crystalinks.com: "The Order of St. Benedict has said this Pope will come from their order. It is interesting that Jesus gave his apocalyptic prophecy about the end of time from the Mount of Olives. This Pope will reign during the beginning of the tribulation Jesus spoke of. Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its fight against evil."

The song which plays during the credits of Matrix Revolutions quotes passages from the Upanishads:

"Lead us from darkness to the light,
Lead us from knowledge of the unreal to the real,
Lead us from fear of death to knowledge of our immortality.
Peace, peace, peace."

This series continues with Bee Seeing You Through the Veil.