Thanks to Stygian Port for mentioning Dr.Judy Woods.

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Found this 1977 interview with Patrick McGoohan concerning the 1967 series of the Prisoner, recently remade.



I share with McGoohan many of the anxieties about our imprisoning culture, which largely exists to destroy individuals (for their own good).

In short, I do not believe that we (especially in the UK, where we have no bill of rights, but lots of lip service towards freedom) live in a free society. Oh, the freedoms we *have* are important -- for example, I'm very glad I won't be dragged away to a torture chamber for writing this blog. These existing freedoms DO make a difference, and they are freedoms dissidents in China, Iran, etc. are now dying for. But justifying a lousy regime by pointing to truly terrible regimes never seemed to me a very compelling argument for acceptance of things as they are.

UK democracy is a joke. Essentially we have a 'choice' between two mostly the same parties that act like petty dictators once they are elected. The Prisoner Episode on democracy 'Free for All,' also reflects my view of the upcoming 2010 election. It's a puppet show, and the electorate has no real choice. And as for the (majority, given the first past the post system over here) who do not vote for this new, (mostly) benign dictatorship, well we feel very disenfranchised. Voltaire (or was it Rousseau, I forget) had it right way back in the eighteenth century; the only time Englishmen are free is when Parliament is dissolved.

The kind of unfreedom McGoohan described is that which we encounter in the West all the time; coercion with a smile.And as he says, one cannot rebel all the time, unless one wishes to go live on a desert island. But the price for that is prisonership.

Now, in 2010, the UK feels a lot like the village. We have video cameras everywhere, cheery 'soft' paternalism and a lot of (nice, soft) violence -- psychological violence rather than physical. 'Choice' is limited to consumer choice, which is often no choice at all.

Be seeing you!

The 90s were my decade of romance with books. There were so many life-changing titles that came out I can't begin to name them all. Certainly a lot of the work of Graham Hancock is up there, but a very large iceberg lies beneath it. I'd venture to say that most of my favorite non-fiction books were published during that decade.

The Zeros was when I went from reading to writing. I had three books published; Clash City Showdown, Our Gods Wear Spandex and The Complete X-Files, one on the way and a finished manuscript awaiting major revisions. In between I spent endless hours struggling with a unpublished graphic novel that finally defeated me. But I did find time to read (I read dozens and dozens of books cover to cover when working on my upcoming book) and here are my top 5 books of the decade, in no particular order.

Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle - This was a revelation. So much ridiculous nonsense has been written about Parsons by both friends and foes that the man's history was in danger of being mythologized beyond recognition. Pendle used a fearsome arsenal of journalistic skills to dig up the truth behind the legend and reveal a fragile, erratic and troubled genius whose flirtations with the dark side of the occult ruined his career, tarnished his reputation and may well have cost him his life. Pendle nicely catalogs Parsons' scientific and occult obsessions without bogging the reader down in minutiae.

Ultimately, Parsons was like many geniuses- it all came too easy for him and he spent his life trying to transcend his gifts in search of some grand apotheosis. Eerily similar to any number of more recent true Hollywood stories. I'm sure if he'd been born 20 years later he'd have traded rockets for a camera and had his own chapter in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.


Esalen by Jeff Kripal - Another fascinating exploration of a topic too shrouded in mythology. This is an exhaustive, warts-and-all, insider's look at the legendary Big Sur institution that played host to legends like Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts and Joseph Campbell. Almost like a who's who of my adolescent and early adult heroes. A somewhat elegiac look at a more innocent and hopeful time in American history, before spirituality became a commodity and religion became the hammer-fist of the corporate state.


Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds - As a preadolescent prog fan I recognized Postpunk for what it was- the second coming of prog and art rock, decked out in decadent, postmodern drag. Reynolds' book is by no means perfect- he indulges his all-too-typical rockcrit tastes at the expense of postpunk bands that were actually successful, important and influential, but the book does provide a worthy and well-rendered historical framework for a period in music history that still resonates to this day. The chapter on Throbbing Gristle is worth the price of the book alone (I also love how Reynolds describes Geordie Walker's guitar playing as "sulphuric, inhuman, practically inhumane.").


Out of Control: The Last Days of the Clash by Vince White- The last incarnation of the Clash was one of the most star-crossed bands in the history of Rock- an inglorious self-implosion that squandered the potential of a major reinvention for a band that had compromised themselves into a corner. And replacement guitarist explains why in ruthless detail, cataloging the backstabbing, the doubletalk, the cowardice, the stultifying hypocrisy.

White's gift for voice is uncanny, and his writing is a throwback to gonzoids like Hunter S Thompson and Lester Bangs. White's picture of Joe Strummer talking revolution while sipping endless glasses of champagne brought to his well-appointed table by an Asian houseboy is devastating to the working-class hero myth still being peddled by credulous journalists. I really wish White does some more writing. He could knock the literary world on its ass the same way the Clash did the musical one in 1977.

Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius by Gary Lachman - Another great book written by a punk rock also-ran. Former Blondie bassist Lachman hung up his bass for occult scholarship and unleashed a book exhaustively cataloging the occult revival of the 1960s. I do think his conclusions are often way off-base (the evolution from Alan Watts to Marilyn Manson seems a little tenuous) but the research itself is invaluable. A must-read for anyone interested in the influence of esoterica on pop culture.

In a similar light, I wanted to cite Philip Coppens amazing work in Picknett and Prince's 2001 book The Stargate Conspiracy. The book seems to have been written simply so the authors could settle personal scores against rival researchers (especially more successful ones), but Coppens' research shines through all of the baseless invective. Coppens wrote a lengthy essay refuting some of the book's claims and clarifying others that you can read here.

Now to the comics. Certainly the big story this decade was the mainstreaming of comics and graphic novels. The medium came roaring back in the Zeros after being left for dead in the 90s, certainly as a result of 9/11 and the ever-expanding wars. Certainly a fascinating story in and of itself. I think some guy wrote a book about it.

Promethea: Book One and Two by Alan Moore and JH Williams- Alan Moore came back to superhero comics in a big way at the turn of the decade with the America's Best Comics line for Wildstorm/Image. Unfortunately, Wildstorm sold out to DC early in the line's run and you could feel some of the air go out of the tires. Tom Strong was Moore's pulpy take on Superman, Top 10 was his post-Watchmen team book parody and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was his Victorian-era take on the Justice League.

My favorite was Promethea, his supernaturalist spin on Wonder Woman. Promethea was a child of the gods, an Egyptian girl rendered immortal by Hermes-Thoth when her father is murdered during the pagan genocides of the early Christian era. She exists in the Immateria- the realm of Imagination- until called into existence when someone believes in her strongly enough.

For me, the glory days of Promethea were the first eleven issues where Moore's obsession with magical lore was carefully woven throughout the storylines. With #12 the book abruptly switched gears and became an illustrated lecture on occultism. The first issue of the new Promethea explored the Tarot in an entertaining way, but for my money the book became very heavy sledding thereafter. A lot of other readers agreed with me and Moore brought the book back to a narrative format shortly before its cancellation in 2005.

Strangehaven Book Three: Conspiracies by Gary Spencer Millidge- The basic concept on this infrequently published indie title is Twin Peaks in the English countryside. Millidge uses (or used, the book seems to be on hiatus) extensive photo-reference, but not in the slick, distancing way some mainstream comics artists have. The point is to create maximum believability.

Conspiracies collects the storyline where the protagonist Alex Hunter encounters a dangerous Druidic secret society called the Knights of the Golden Light, comprised of the village's leaders- including its police force (hmm, sounds like New Jersey). Alex is courted by the Knights and consults with an occult scholar who informs him that the village of Strangehaven lies at the center of a powerful vortex of leylines. Gripping stuff. Buy it here.

Lucifer: Children and Monsters by Mike Carey and Peter Gross- I'm more interested in my Sandman Companion than the series itself, so this spinoff was a surprise for me. Especially since the titular character is such a dick. But Carey created this surprisingly immersive web of characters and stories around him that the series had my attention for the first several issues of its run.

The first three or four trades are all worth having but I have to cite Children and Monsters for the title story, which is one of the most mind-blowing comic book stories I've ever read in my life. Illustrated by Dean Ormston (one of my favorite cartoonists of the past few years) it tells the story of a young Chaldean priestess cursed by the gods to concieve and miscarry every day for eternity when she breaks her vows of chastity. It's a story that crawls inside your head and stays there long after you've finished it. The kind of magic only comics are capable of, and the kind of magic we see far too little of anymore.

X-Force by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred - Marvel came roaring back from bankruptcy in the early Zeros and created a sense of excitement and community that strongly reminded this old fanboy of the Marvel Age of the 60s. There was a real try-anything spirit and putting Vertigo nutcase Peter Milligan and indie maestro Mike Allred on an X-book was one of the fruits of that philosophy. X-Force tied nicely into the meta vibe of the "Bill and Joe Show" (the editorial regime of Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada) and deconstructed the whole X-millieu in the bargain. The book changed its name to X-Statix, but some of the fizz was gone for me by then, and it seemed more Madman than Milligan. Still need to read Allred's Golden Plates books.

The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr.- Of course. The Eternals is one of the touchstones of my youth, and though they stuck around after Jack left Marvel, they never had quite the same import for me (they were certainly popular in their guest appearances in books like Thor). Chuck Austen laid the groundwork for this big ticket comeback with his under-rated miniseries The Eternal but could never compete with Gaiman's starpower.

Funnily enough, I bought the first few issues and was gravely disappointed and decided to wait for the trade. It was a wise decision. I suppose Gaiman's been working as a novelist for so long he paces his stories to build momentum as they unfold. A lot more fantasy-oriented than Jack would have liked, but synched up eerily with Heroes, with which it shared a number of plot points. Also touched on ideas I'll be ruminating on in the future.

Many honorable mentions: The Eternal, Dark Ivory, the Tony Moore-era Walking Dead, Morrison's Marvel Boy and All-Star Superman, Carey and Bachalo's run on X-Men, Rich Corben's renaissance on Hellboy and other titles, Wolverine: Enemy of the State, the mind-boggling remastering of Lee and Kirby's Tales of Asgard, Finder, and Army@Love: Hot Zone Club and everything by Adrian Tomine. Others I'm sure I'll regret for not remembering.

“Hey coach, what time is it?“ “You mean right now?” --Yogi Berra

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. --Rev 3:20

Continuing from the last post, Albedo, we reach the intermediate stage of Xanthosis, or The Yellowing. Typically the stages are done in three's as there are three alchemical substances: salt, sulphur and mercury. However, I felt it necessary to break this down a bit more and introduce the hermetic allegory of the peacock's tail, otherwise known as Cauda Pavonis. This stage represents the quick color change which signals that the attainment of the Stone is near. A warning is given to alchemists not to believe their work is complete at this stage, however, and not to get too excited or distracted as that may disrupt the process and endanger the completion of the Stone.

Mercurius:
The remaining darkness unfolds like the multi-coloured petals of a metallic flower. Each jewel-like petal scintillates in a constellation of sapphires, opals, emeralds, amethysts, rubies, chalcedon, and onyx. The colors shift and merge, wink and dissipate, like an incarnation of Iris.

The colors irradiate form the centre like the rays of Sol contained within the circle of Luna. There are many eyes which yet form the iris of the single astral Eye. This we call the Cauda Pavonis. It watches me as I sit in front of it, pausing between one word and another. I see my own face, thoughtful, slightly skewed, as in a mirror image. The Eye sees into my heart and my heart goes out to it. I am no longer myself.

The Alchemist and The Thief enter a room with the design of the third-eye chakra on the floor, complete with Om/Aum symbol in the center. Also, there is an albino peacock walking around the room, a symbol of enlightenment according to Jodorowsky, hence the fitting title for this part of the series, The Peacocks Tail or cauda pavonis.



The replicas represent seven planets, but not the traditional seven, as The Alchemist is already the sun, and The Thief is shown in a deleted scene with the symbol of the moon, and in that same scene The Written Woman is shown with the symbol for mercury. Together these three characters may constitute the Three Essentials of Alchemy. The (seven) Planets continue from Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The Planets are shown be be perversions and inversions of their traditional symbolism. Even the planetary symbol is sometimes inverted to show that this is literally the case with these characters.

The Alchemist:
“The fish thinks about his hunger, not about the fisherman. It is the master who seeks the disciple. You want to know the secret, but man cannot see nothing but himself. To accomplish the alchemical work you will have these companions. They are thieves like you, but on another level. They are the most powerful people on the planet. Industrialists and politicians."

The first Planet we are introduced to is Fon of the planet Venus. He is a man, contrary to the idea of venus, and his symbol is also an inversion of the traditional logo, though the color is a greenish-blue and is typical for the planet. The employees at his factory are all women, and he sometimes picks from them one to be his wife, one of many wives that is. He also only makes love to them during working hours.



A few of his wives appear to be quite young, and I'm reminded that his name “Fon” is similar to “a fawn,” or a satyr - the wildly sexual forest gods such as Pan. The movie shows he and his new wife making love and she pulls a handful of white hearts and pours them in her mouth and on her face. It's one of many times that Jodorowsky uses analogous elements in his film rather than showing the actual object/thing, but it also reminds me of how rice is traditionally thrown over a newlywed couple to signify fertility: the new wife of Fon is shown pregnant immediately after he chooses her. Additionally, these white “pearls of jizdom” are the base form of “pearls of wisdom.” Often great mystical truths are symbolized by sexual ideas, though they aren't meant to be taken literally: sex for pleasure is a distraction. A very fun distraction, I might add, but not the type of eternal bliss one on a journey to enlightenment is seeking. Buddha and others have been tempted with pleasures of the flesh. Speaking of analogies, I just learned via the commentary which I was finally able to get the subtitles working on, that Fon's new wife here is actually a transvestite, a man who became a woman, and thus combines the two halves in an alchemical rebis/hermaphrodite of sorts.

The difference between being immortal and immoral is the cross, or the letter t/T. Odin hung on the World Tree and received Wisdom, Jesus was crucified and went to the Otherworld and came back. Without the death to the physical, one is stuck in the pleasure focused state and doesn't find true bliss.

His father is the boss of the company but he is deaf, dumb and blind. When he makes a decision, he puts his hand between the legs of the mummy of his wife, and if she is dry the answer is “no.” Their business is beauty, but as this is an inversion of traditional venus, the beauty is only an illusion. They make a line of masks which are permanent beautiful faces. They even beautify dead bodies and animate them for lively funerals. They also make fake muscles for men to put on their bodies, as well as cod-pieces to increase the size of their bulge. As you can see, it's all egoic beauty, and does not change the person internally, where external beauty begins. It is said that people who are fairly enlightened tend to have magnetic attractiveness, not really how they look, but something which people pick up on and want to be around. So working on internal beauty will have an effect on the external, but working solely on the external only masks the internal ugliness. The rest of The Planets are also inversions of what they would typically stand for.



Next we come to Isla of Mars. Here we have a woman symbolizing mars, again an inversion, and again the typical mars logo is inverted as well. She sleeps in a black triangular room inside a black shielded bed (like the Batmobile actually) with 3 dogs and 2 other lesbian women. The two women are the ones The Alchemist is cleaning up in the opening scenes of the movie, which I mention in the beginning of the previous post in this series. Isla dresses as a man as well. The theme song for this part of the movie is called Sapphic Sleep which represents female homosexuality.



Isla makes weapons with the help of her many male secretaries workforce who dress in drag. They make bombers, bombs, ray guns, deadly bacteria, antimatter waves, carcinogenic gases, etc.



She even makes weapons for the young generation and it's sit-ins and marches (referring to the late sixties peace movement). Instead of putting flowers into gun barrels, Isla provides peace protesters with grenade necklaces, psychedelic shotguns, rock-n-roll weapons, and even mystical weapons for religious people.



Klen of Jupiter lives in an opulant mansion with his wife who doesn't love him and a kid who is only interested in getting his allowance. His son is shown in a deleted scene with a naked girl laying in bed with him, like father like son, as the father, Klen, also has a mistress we'll see in a minute. This deleted scene is pretty interesting however, as it depicts a chapel room in the house with a cross made of televisions (used by Marilyn Manson in a concert) and a picture of The Flash where Jesus should be. The cross made of cubic boxes is so freaking awesome... As we all know a cube unfolded is a cross, and a tesseract unfolded is a cubic cross (with another box in front and behind the middle one). Plus not only is it boxes, it's television sets, microcosms of the fake world or matrix we inhabit. It also reminds me of the boxy amplifiers which replace the body of a dead man in Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" video (see my: Heart Shaped Coffin post). I love this scene, too bad it was deleted because they were afraid the naked little girl would be off-putting to some. There are also more paintings by Jodorowsky (I'm guessing) in this room, all comic and sexual. And the image of The Flash is from a comic cover of a comic where Flash loses his memory and believes himself to be an 8-year old kid. The Flash: “They say I'm The Flash! If it only were true I could help them! Please make it come true God!” Rings of Pinocchio to me, but also something Jesus may have had to deal with being told he was the son of God as he was growing up. Not sure if it was planned this way, but Flash is related to Hermes/Thoth and therefore wisdom, so wisdom is being venerated, though here in an inverted world it is comic and fantasy.



Klen meets up with his young hippie mistress (who costs $1,000 a week) and they go to his factory where they make sexual art, most of which actually incorporates naked living people into the art. The best part of this guys factory is the giant robotic vagina 'love machine.' Yes, a giant mechanical vagina. The "seX-Box" needs to be stimulated with a large 'electronic wand' and brought to climax. The result of a successful attempt is a baby robot. Yup, that's life, going through the robotic motions which may result in procreation so that a new generation can again go through the motions, so on and so forth. Jodorowsky comments that this is a mixing of geometry and biology, machines with humans, and that the machine is becoming more human by giving birth. He muses that machines can help people evolve, and today that is happening with the use of binaural beats, bio-feedback and self-hypnosis technology which people can use to stimulate increased memory, better meditation, lucid dreaming, and out of body experiences.



Sel of Saturn caters to children. It's funny, because the god Saturn is known for eating his children! I didn't take too many pictures of her scenes, but Sel hangs out with dwarfs who dress as Santa. Although he doesn't mention it, Jodorowsky has connected Santa with Saturn/Satan. She dresses as a clown and plays with them, but once she gets to her factory it's all business. I think she switches places with the tall guy who follows her around, but it's hard to tell with all the makeup.



She runs a toy factory where she makes toy weapons to indoctrinate future generations into wanting to go to war against whoever the State wants to go to war with (in this case, it's Peru). They start them young by planning 15 years in advance and then making toys which subconsciously make the kids hate the future enemy. Her workforce, contrary to her target audience, is entirely made up of the elderly. Might as well use people close to death to promote death. Some of them even appear to be veterans of previous wars.



Berg of the aptly named Uranus is an effeminate mommas boy who lives with his frighteningly sexual mother
(warning: this scene of the movie may give you nightmares!). Jodorowsky explains that Uranus symbolized to him the dark and depraved side of humans. Jodorowsky wanted this movie to transform not only the audience but the people acting in it, so all the characters basically play themselves, and in this case the gay character Berg is actually a gay man; the same goes for the lesbian Isla of mars, and the millionaire Klen who was actually a millionaire, and so on.

The mother is played by a screwball who hung around the studios looking for work as an extra, but the most notable thing about her is that she has no belly button! Jodorowsky likens her to Eve, as Eve was born from Adam's rib and had no need for a belly button and umbilical cord. She doesn't like the only small window in their room and even says that it is too big and needs to be covered up; she wants to totally seal themselves off from the world (compare to the gay mamma's boy in Stephen Kings “It” is isn't allowed to go out in play very often). Anyways, he wears a lot of pentacles and has a shirt with a large “5” on it. I'm just letting you know the details in case someone else cares to interpret, some of these scenes are pretty damn bizarre! :)



These two work for the government as financial advisors. Their report to the government advises the killing of four million citizens in the next five years to boost the economy. The president then orders the opening of “gas-chambers, gas-schools, gas-universities, gas-libraries, gas-museums, gas-dance-halls, gas-whorehouses, etc.”

Axon of Neptune is a police chief. His symbol is inverted and can be seen during a large Naziesque ceremony. A new candidate who has apparently volunteered to work for Axon is splayed out on an altar with his genitals exposed. Axon rides up with a ridiculously giant machine gun and then gets out some scissors and cuts off the boys testicles (ouch!). Axon explains that 999 other “heroes” have made the same sacrifice to work for Axon, and this boys testicles complete Axon's sanctuary of 1,000 (pairs of) testicles.




I don't know about you, but the one thing my house is missing is a shrine room walled with castrated organs! The boy is given The Holy Book which is all about believing in Axon: “Axon is the truth, the power and the light.” His fascist programming guide, I guess.



Axon has a mohawk which is probably from the Roman/Fascist tradition and not the American Indian tradition (such as those worn by punks). Axon's troops clash with student protesters, but instead of of actually hurting each other, they splash paint on each other and mimic shooting, stabbing and decapitations. It's all external obvious special effects. It seems to be indicating a thin line between horror movies and real horror, or how war is televised and turned out as entertainment.



Finally we come to Lut of Pluto. And like Pluto to dog, he hangs out with Mickey Mouse, or rather a bunch of young boys dressed as Minnie Mouse. It's pretty clear he abuses children, and the Disney touch adds a bit of realism here. Lut is an architect, but his planet is named for the god of the Underworld, Pluto. (God of Underworld... The Architect...) Jodorosky says, "I think one of the greatest evils of contemporary society is architecture, because of its geometric, linear forms."



Lut built an apartment complex which was a total failure because he was building homes when all people need is shelter. All the tenants of this project are shown to be crippled, a comment on what living in a boxy environment does to living organisms which need natural surroundings. His next great idea is a community of suspended coffin shaped boxes for people to live in, because the tenant can eat at the factory and doesn't need a kitchen, and only needs a place to sleep in safety. Reminds me of the Japanese "sleeping tubes" people who work in the city use if they can't make it home that night. (They appear in the movie Fast And the Furious: Tokyo Drift, actually.)



Together these seven Planets with The Written Woman and The Alchemist represent the 9 symbols of the enneagram, though they are a perversion of what they are supposed to be. The Thief doesn't get counted because he is the person searching for enlightenment and the rest are anthropomorphic representations of his self. The Alchemist wears the enneagram (9-pointed star) and Alexander Jodorowsky mentions that each character represents a place on the enneagram in commentary for a deleted scene. I don't know much about this thingy, so here's the wiki quote you were waiting for:

The Enneagram of Personality is mostly taught and understood as a psychospiritual typology (a model of personality types) but is also presented in ways intended to discover and develop higher states of being, essence and enlightenment. Each Enneagram personality type expresses a distinctive and habitual pattern of thinking and emotions. The behavioral characteristics of the personality types are less distinctive. By recognizing their personality pattern a person may be able to use the Enneagram as an effective method for self-understanding and self-development.”

See wikipedia for the nine personality types. The symbol was used by spiritual teacher Gurdjieff who may have learned it from Sufis or Christian monks.



The octagon, highly prized in synchromystic circles for it's connections to star-gates and the center of the Milky Way, and to the Holy Grail, is sometimes referred to as an enneagram (meaning nine) and this is because often times the center of a symbol is a hidden extra point, so an octagon really has a ninth central point. As pointed out by me previously, the “stargate” from the movie Stargate has nine “chevrons,” though only seven are active, and there were nine trees planted around the edge of the fountain sculpture (water-door symbol) which used to sit at the center of the World Trade Center plaza (see this video by Labyrinth of the Psychonaut for more.)



Each Planet is connected to a point on the Enneagram symbol: 1 is Sel/Saturn, 2 is Axon/Neptune, 3 is The Written Woman/Mercury, 4 is Berg/Uranus, 5 is Lut/Pluto, 6 is Isla/Mars, 7 is Fon/Venus, 8 is Klen/Jupiter, and 9 is The Alchemist/Sun. Together they ultimately represent the parts of a person (The Thief), and a connection may be made to the City of the Nine Gates of Hindu mythology where the nine gates represent openings in the body, as well as the Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows which is the fictional nine keys to open the Underworld/Otherworld from the movie The Ninth Gate, as well as the 9 days Odin hung on the world tree, the thrice-three (nine) gates of hell, and so on.



From Secrets Of The Ninja: "Between these [three centers of power] are nine "gates" up the spinal column that enable the Ninja to collect Qi in the Hara, cultivate it through the breathing techniques, and elevate it to the Mysterious Chamber of the Mind to achieve enlightenment."

In the other series of articles I started in January '09 with Heart Shaped Coffin I noted the interchangeability or rather connectivity of both seven and nine as being the number of layers, gates, domains, etc, and there are also systems which have nine major chakras as opposed to the more common seven. Really, there are thousands of chakras or plexuses that could potentially be mapped out, but seven or nine are the main ones running up the spinal column from the perineum to above the skull. If you're into extremely complicated fractal based physics, check out Dan Winter's page on the number nine which resonates with this stuff.



The Great Work is done when the Seven again are One. That's my version of this quote: “It Is Finished When Seven Are One." It represents the idea of bringing the seven planets/metals/traits together into a perfect balance in a single vessel – you (the alchemist/fool/hero).

The group of seven Planets gets together at the Red Tower of The Alchemist. The Alchemist explains: "You have power and money, but you are mortal. You know you cannot escape death. but immortality can be obtained."



He continues speaking during a slide presentation of various holy mountains, "In old traditions they speak of holy mountains. The Meru mountain in India, Mount Kualua of the taoists, Himalaya, Mountain of The Philosophers, the Rosicrucian mountain, the Kabbalistic mountain. There are many holy mountains. The legend is always the same. Nine immortal men live on top of the mountain. From the highest peak they direct our world. They hold the secret to the conquest of death. They are more than forty-thousand years old.” “But they were once like ourselves. If others have succeeded in conquering death, why must we accept it? I know where the immortals live and how to obtain their secret.” He shows them ancient Rosicrucian manuscript which depicts the immortals and shows where they live: The Holy Mountain of Lotus Island.



The Alchemist continues, "We must unite our forces to assault The Holy Mountain and rob it's wise men of the secret of immortality. But to conquor the immortals, we too must become wise men. The elements of chemistry are many but finite. So too are the techniques of enlightenment. With the correct formula, any human being can become enlightened. The immmortals are a group. If we are to succeed, we must cease to be individuals and become a collective being."



The group now enters a yellow room shaped like an eye. The seven Planets and The Thief and The Written Woman and The Alchemist all take their seats around a circular table with a fire pit in the center. "Burn your money" says The Alchemist. They don't seem happy, but the promise of immortality out-weighs their attachment to money/material possessions/life. The Thief had earlier been indoctrinated to the world of money (being paid to take tourist pictures, and working on the animal circus), and now for him money is what makes the world go 'round, so he hides some money up his sleeves. The Alchemist notices: "Thief! If you don't want to die - kill your money!"



Now the Alchemist says "We shall destroy the self image." Together they burn paper effigies of themselves. The Alchemist: "When the self concept thinks this is I and that is Mine he binds himself, and he forgets the Great Self." The Planets and the rest have become one unit now, but there is still some refining to take place as they journey to Lotus Island and up The Holy Mountain. The journey continues in the final post of this series later...




From The Belly Of The Whale: "As Marcus Aurelius writes, it is one of 'the noblest functions of reason to know whether it is time to walk out of the world or not.' Unknowing and uncertain, the philosopher walks."

It has been the subject of mystical speculation at several periods of history, perhaps first among the Pythagoreans. The mathematical ratio of its width (measured to the endpoints of the "body", not including the "tail") to its height was reportedly believed by them to be 265:153 (namely 1.73203...). The geometric ratio of these dimensions is actually the square root of 3, or 1.73205... (since if straight lines are drawn connecting the centers of the two circles with each other, with the two points where the circles intersect, two equilateral triangles join along an edge). The ratio 265:153 is an approximation to the square root of 3, with the property that no better approximation can be obtained with smaller whole numbers. The number 153 appears in the Gospel of John (21:11) as the number of fish Jesus caused to be caught in a miraculous Draught of Fish. Coventry Patmore has written a poem called Vesica Pisces, Part XXIV of the Book I of his cycle The Unknown Eros (1877).

Square of 3 is 1.7...
21:11 added up equals 32
1877 added up equals 23
the fish gut or the almond
but so much more really
suspiciously brief entry in Wikipedia