LORD OF THE RINGS : Intro

- Thank you all for coming I know that on the surface this kind of subject matter may seem pretty esoteric & unrelated to the very real & pressing practical problems of our time. In fact I struggled mightily myself with an inner voice that told me I was spending way too much time on a fairy tale & I better hurry up & get a real job!

- But the story kept working on me much like a powerful dream & when I finally surrendered fully to it I realized that the source of all our so called practical problems are a result of constipated imagination.

- The only thing that will save humanity & planet earth is a revolution of imagination. & the good news is, that revolution is well under way & we human beings come fully equipped with everything we need to rise to our greatness & Myth is the operating manual.

- We’re gathered here today in a darkened room to receive messages from the deep self we are entering the ‘dreamtime’. - There are nearly 350 images in the slideshow that will play while I’m talking & between the other video & audio clips. - I want to invite you to take the images in as if they were your own dream images. - Notice what feelings or sensations arise as you see the images. Look at the content of the images paying special attention to the jewelry, symbols on the clothing wore by the characters. Notice the colors, shapes & textures of things, the quality of the light, the emotional expression on the faces. Over the course of this workshop these images will become fleshed out & deepened as we delve into the symbolism. This is more than an intellectual exercise it is designed to excite & awaken your own imagination & join you to the collective project of dreaming the New Dream for humanity.

- the medievalist historian Jacques Le Goff wrote, “The imaginal life is central to the human story & should be central to the writing & teaching of history.”

- Presenting outline/overview of LOTR focusing on some main themes & discussing why I’m convinced this is THE myth of our time ie. the dream of Western civilization. In short Rings are Us!!

- I’m going to talk for about 45 mins. To set the stage & lay the foundation for my thesis, then we will have some time for questions before we go on to watch some film clips & other video.

- Through this story we can see, in image form, much like a dream, the condition of the human psyche at the personal & collective level at this time in our history.

- I’ve come to this conclusion after many years researching the nature of Evil & pondering the question of why our species is so pathologically destructive. We are products of Nature, grow out of the Earth, everything else in nature seems to get along pretty well what is wrong with us?? LOTR gives us some clues.

- I consider myself to be an explorer of sorts one who has been out sailing the philosophical seas on a quest to understand the nature of Evil & to discover how to deal with it. What I’m offering here are my discoveries, not to say that I now have the ultimate answer or truth but instead to ignite your curiosity & stir your imagination to begin your own search for understanding.

- I firmly believe we each have a piece of the BIG puzzle & the idea is to find your unique vision & share it with others.

- What struck me about LOTR is that its portrayal of Evil rang true & it also provides a rich nuance of the complex psychological processes we are currently moving through.

- LOTR is telling us much the same thing (although w/considerably more psych. detail) that many myths, legends & prophecies are suggesting : namely that we are on the threshold of gaining access to Knowledge that will unleash unimaginable Power & Energy that will radically change our lives for better or worse.

- Science also provides us with models of these sorts of evolutionary shifts; punctuated equilibrium in evolution theory, phase transition in physics - perturbation in mathematics dynamical systems theory aka Chaos theory - does not mean disordered (where accum. of small variations produce huge shifts to higher states of order – chaos is viewed as order we don’t yet understand.. - Metamorphosis in biology ie Pluto

- So I’m suggesting LOTR gives us insight into the magnitude of the changes we face & some instruction re: what to be aware of & ultimately DO to prepare ourselves both personally & collectively.

 

- In addition we are instructed on the level of personal commitment required to keep going especially when we feel the quest is hopeless, because that is the moment of transcendence when miracles occur. The trap that Evil uses to ensnare us is self doubt, fear & despair.

- Although I have read Tolkien’s LOTR Trilogy I will herein be concentrating on the film versions because of the potent dreamlike visual imagery, & there are some differences in the film version that I felt made it more relevant to our time. & I was struck by the synchronicity of the first film FOTR appearing in theaters winter of 2001 a few months after the Sept. 11 event. Then in winter 2002 “The Two Towers” came out during the lead up to the War on Terror (prefer to call War OF Terror) then ROTK followed in 2003.

- This led me to consider the prophetic nature of the Myth in psycho-spiritual terms & it emphasized the urgency for us to gain a more sophisticated understanding of Evil in our time.

So I propose we view LOTR through 4 lens/filters:

1) Personal Psychological: consider the story as a personal dream where each of the characters rep. a component of the psyche in a Jungian sense. Or we could think of the characters as manifestations of different states of consciousness.

2) Collective Mythological: Take a Joseph Campbell perspective where the myth reveals where we are as humans, what is the nature of our Quest & what can we anticipate for our New Myth.

3) This view follows a Jungian dream analysis model called amplification where we examine & interpret the prominent Symbols & Symbol Systems represented;

  eg: Hero, King, Warrior. Magician, Shaman, Shadow, Mother, Lover,

  - Ring, Garden, Sword, Tower, Bow Axe, River, Trees

  - Animal symbols: Horse, Moth, Eagle, Spider

  - Symbol Systems include Alchemy, Astrology, Tarot, Numerology

  -Science: Geometry, Mathematics, Physics, Cosmology

Science is also a type of Mythology / story about creation etc.

4) Lens is Tolkien himself: I will begin here.

- Born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Jan. 3 1892 in Bloemfontein S. Africa, died in1973 in Bournemouth Eng.

– Prof. Anglo Saxon @ Oxford & Prof. English language & literature @ Merton College

- erudite scholar of his day, friend & colleague of C. S. Lewis (Til We Have Faces) & Charles Williams (wrote on the Arthurian Legends)

- a linquist & philologist he actually created the languages of the Elves, Dwarves, Mordor!!

  (lingua –tongue or tongue like organ) linguist - study nature & structure of human speech phil.- Historical linguistics, literary study, classical scholarship.

Sharron Rose: Article Tolkien at the end of Time:

 

 “From childhood, Tolkien had a gift for creating imaginary languages. This gift, which lay at the root of his work, the ability to attune his ears & inner sensibility to a more subtle vibratory frequency, naturally led him to take up the study of philology (study of language) as his profession. This scholarship allowed him to trace words, expressions & vernacular backwards through history & culture to their root source. This research into the roots of language, known in alchemical lore as the “Language of the Birds or Language of the Gods” would logically lead him to ponder the hidden mysteries or secret messages which have been passed down from the ancients through the vehicle of the spoken & written word.

  Fulcanelli (French alchemist pseudonom) describes this language as,’the language which teaches the mystery of things & unveils the most hidden truths’. He also tells us that this arcane language of the spirit uses the law of phonetics in which the ear of the listener & eye of the reader is focused upon the sound & meaning rather than spelling.

( highlights difference between seeing & looking vs reading).

  Through his lifetime of research & attunement to the sacred origins of language, through the art of listening & pondering the relationship of sound to manifestation, Tolkien came to realize that each name, word & descriptive phrase was the current manifestation of a cultural tapestry that wove itself backwards through thousands of years of history.

  Did his attunement to the subtle vibratory frequencies of sound, allow him to travel back in time to a former Age of our world to perceive the presence of creatures such as elves, dwarves, hobbits.

  Tolkien himself describes the process by which he created his story as a linking together of the tales that arose in his mind as ‘given things’, a record of what was already there somewhere, not of inventing.

  By listening to and contemplating the fundamental sounds or seed syllables of words drawn from ancient European culture, was Tolkien tuning in to the essential spirit of Old Europe and the voices of his ancestors?

  He must have become aware that each sound has a corresponding essence/vibratory frequency that brings thought into manifestation. He could even have known about the debate on the nature of sound and words that took place in the Middle Ages between the Realists and the Nominalists on the metaphysical significance of language.

  - Realists argued from the perspective that all sounds are sacred, having their origins in the Divine. For them, as for the great adepts and mystics, words, express by their very nature, the spiritual essence of a thing.

  - The Nominalists insisted that words are merely a product of human convention, and have no connection whatsoever to the inner nature of things. Tolkien with his years of linguistic research and decipherment had so tuned his sensibilities as to have intimate knowledge of the ancient spiritually oriented view of the role of sound in the creation and manifestation of reality. chanting??

- Wade Davis, “Every language is an old growth forest of the mind” composing an Ethnoshere: sum total of all dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, institutions brought into being by the human imagination since dawn of consciousness - much like Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious.

- We’re being invited to consider the nature & function of language in a deeper way, where did it actually come from & why? Symbol use & primitive language emerged roughly 150,000 yrs ago. It is a behavior & not something one would expect to see emerge out of animal organization.

- Language is the result of the Coding of sound to meaning!

The very fact that I can stand here making small mouth noises that move invisibly thru the air to your ear and are reconstructed in your brain to form coherent complex images and ideas in your mind is pretty miraculous. Is what we call reality actually made of language?

- Tolkien was adamant that LOTR was not an allegory, but rather a mythical reimagining of the history of Britian & Europe 6000 – 7000 yrs. ago He wanted to ‘restore to the English an epic tradition & present them with a mythology of their own’.

- He insisted that rather than inventing the story it shaped itself as he wrote it over a period of many years from 1936 – 1954 when it was first published.

- LOTR is said to be the 2^nd most read book of the 20^th century next to the Bible! So its impact as a literary work of art cannot be underestimated even if you don’t accept its relevance as a Myth.

- Here is L. Shlain from “Art & Physics” -“ I propose that the radical innovations of art embody the preverbal stages of new concepts that will eventually change civilization.”

- “In the case of the visual arts, ( the film version) in addition to illuminating, imitating & interpreting reality, a few artists create a language of symbols for which there are yet to be words.”

- again in Art & Phys. He…” puts forth the idea that innovations in art prefigure major discoveries in physics. Art & Physics are 2 different languages; the artist uses image & metaphor, while the physicist use numbers & equations”

This will make more sense when we get to the science symbolism, as will this prescient quote by Arthur Miller, “Art has always been the revenge of the human spirit on the short sighted.”

Now what about Mythology? Why should that be important?

- Poet Muriel Rukeyer “Universe is not made of atoms it is made of stories.”

- Just as paleonotology, acheaology & history inform us of events that shaped our biological, cultural & social evolution so Mythology relays the evolution of the human psyche as an inner reality that promotes survival & grows in conjunction with outer physical adaptations which bear the mark of our ongoing dance with Nature.

- just as the physical body portrays its historical evolution in its physical form so the unconscious psyche contains all memories of its primordial past stored in the form of archetypes ie the psyche’s version of biological instincts in image form. Eg. Instinct of aggression appears in psyche as a war god, instinct to love & be loved appears as a love goddess.

  - Archetypes can be defined as the primal forms that govern the psyche & connect Body to Soul.

 - Jung & Campbell proposed Myth is to the collective what dreams are to the individual.

 - Campbell “The new mythology would be a planetary one encompassing the whole earth and it is inhabitants & embrace the Spirit connecting all Life.”

  - in Campbell's words - "The material of myth is the material of our life, the material of our body, and the material of our environment. A living, vital mythology deals with these.”

  - “Mythology is much more important than history. If you want know a people, understand their mythology.”

- Myths are creative responses to the deep structures of mind & heart. Humans respond to places & events by fashioning narratives to explain their experiences.

. - C.S. Lewis “A myth is a story that everyone knew about even if they couldn’t remember ever reading or hearing about any version of it.” Every new generation finds new meaning in it.

- So myth is first & foremost a maker of meaning. The urge to make meaning can be classified as an instinct in human beings. Ignorance of myth is ignorance of the roots of our own culture as well as the rest of the worlds.

- J. Houston, “Myth is the DNA of a culture.” Our collective mythology is woven into our genetic makeup.

- R. Tarnas, ”Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the Cosmos pour forth into human cultural manifestation.”

- Tolkien himself, “I believe that legends & myths are largely made of truth, and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode and long ago certain truths & modes of this kind were discovered & must always reappear. There cannot be any story without a fall, all stories are about a fall.” …….Jung – encounter w/ Self is a defeat for the ego.

- M. Meade says “Myth is about the beginning & end of things – about everything turning to ash, but in the end things don’t really end there is always a thread, something left that can start Life anew. Meaning surfaces in the Dark times & myth becomes sensible when things are ending.”

  - In the “end of Time & the Roots of Eternity” he points out that when we run out of Time we can begin to connect with Eternity which is another word for Infinity.

- Plato, “Time is the moving image of Eternity.”

- Anybody feeling pressed for time these days? Are things not getting better & better & worse & faster & faster?

- LOTR is about the end of an Age and beginning of a new Age. The whole matter of 2012 deals with beginnings, endings & Time. 

 

- In 2008 astrological Pluto, planet of metamorphosis, transformation, death for the purpose of rebirth entered Capricorn where it will remain until 2024, the sign ruled by Saturn – Chronos – Father Time. What we can expect to see transformed, very soon, is our understanding of and relationship to, Time. - Eg. Flat world –Galileo - telescope -- Time is not long, it is very wide!

- This about perception, J. Houston says, “Change the story, you change the perception, change the perception you change the world!” - the message is; what we now perceive is a small portion of what we can perceive & that is a small portion of what is perceivable.

- Saturn & Capricorn are also concerned with matter, what we call the material world, specifically the structures that form the foundations of our world ie. economic, political, social structures.

 - Also, beginning in Nov 2008 was the first of 3 encounters between Saturn & another astro. Heavy weight, Uranus – the great liberator! – Rules contractions…

- Thru to 9/09 we are living under the influence of these archetypal forces in opposition. Saturn the force that seeks to uphold & maintain the structures & Uranus ruler of volcanoes, earthquakes & chaos wants to blow up everything that outlived its usefulness & therefore can no longer sustain Life. - Uranus is the ruler of Aquarius the Age we are moving into and it is traveling through the sign of Pisces the Age we are moving out of. We are undergoing a Revolution of Imagination (Pluto Sag. 1995-2008)

- Pluto brings catacylismic upheavals & exposure of all corruption in order to restore harmony & a higher way of being, brings deep cleansing to the human psyche. Similar to Hindu god Shiva, breaking down structure, death, decay, renovation. Regeneration of the self. Pluto exposes the unhealthy aspects of life, tears down the masks, reveals the Shadow.

- In short, we humans are bearing witness to the turning of astrological cycles 248 yrs. Cosmic cycles of 26,000 yrs. The message is our relationship to time & matter will radically change as a consequence of exposure to new Knowledge that is about to come into consciousness & old Knowledge, that has been Intentionally hidden from us.

  (45 min.)

QUESTIONS?????

With that in mind we will watch the first clip from FOTR. Questions??

Prologue:

 Lays out the central theme of the story. Long ago a force of malevolent destructiveness, was unleashed & challenged, but not defeated, it fell into the unconscious where it festered, gestated, rebuilt its strength, & is now reemerging into consciousness in the form of the RING.

- story of good vs evil – power of love vs love of power.

Here is a synopsis of Anodea Judith’s book

“Waking the Global Heart: Humanity's Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love," (Anodea shares her perspective on how) our global challenges are evolutionary drivers that are forcing a reorganization of values, priorities, habits, and organizing principles. She believes that this profound shift is not our first birth, but a cultural rebirth from our current adolescence to our future adulthood as a planetary civilization. What appears to be a "dark night of the species" is actually the perfect dynamic to initiate humanity into its rite of passage from the love of power to the power of love, from competition to collaboration, ego systems to ecosystems, a chain of command to a web of connection, and hierarchy to holarchy.

- I would take the phrase a bit deeper by rewording it to say the Power of Eros vs the lust for Power.

- Eros – the ecstatic throbbing pulse of the Lifeforce the source fuel of Nature ie. everything on this planet & maybe everything in the Cosmos, in the form of Dark Matter/Dark Energy it is the Infinite Creativity

EROS prior to degenerating into a winged cherub doing mischief for his mother Aphrodite was

In the Theogony of Hesiod (fl. 700 bc), Eros was a primeval god, son of Chaos, the original primeval emptiness of the universe; a later tradition made him the son of Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love and beauty, (by either Zeus (the king of the gods), Ares (god of war and of battle), or Hermes (divine messenger of the gods). Eros was god not simply of passion but also of fertility.

 -EROS was the Protogenos (primordial deity) of procreation who emerged self-formed at the beginning of time. He was the driving force behind the generation of new life in the early cosmos.

-Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, inasmuch as he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Chaos consisted.

The chief associates of Eros were Pothos and Himeros (Longing and Desire).

First there was Chaos in Hesiod’s system, then Gaea and Eros (Earth and Desire). Chaos, however, did not generate Gaea; the offspring of Chaos were Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night)

The Orphics knew him as Phanes, a primal being hatched from the world egg at creation. He was also equivalent to Thesis, "Creation," and Physis, "Nature."

First, says Hesiod (Theog. 120, &c.), there was Chaos, then came Ge, Tartarus, and Eros, the fairest among the gods, who rules over the minds and the council of gods and men. ix. c. 27.)

- So before we examine the symbolism of the RING I want to give you 2 quotes that underline the importance of symbols.

- First from M. Tsarion who emphasizes that symbol literacy is essential to our survival:

  “Archetypal images, such as are found in great art, Alchemy, Tarot, or in Yantras and Mandalas, etc, lead the mind beyond the subject versus object dichotomy (to the state of kataphatic knowledge.) This is where the knower and the known do not interact as polarized entities. When a mantic image (pertaining to the power of divination or prophecy) or geometric shape is deeply contemplated, it has the ability to transmute consciousness from the (“hylic”) base level to the (“phosphoric”) spiritual level. It opens consciousness to ancestral wisdom.”

The man who understands a symbol not only opens himself to the objective world but at the same time succeeds in emerging from his personal situation and reaching a comprehension of the universal...thanks to the symbol, the individual experience is "awoken" and transmuted into a spiritual act - Mircea Eliade (scholar of religion & philosophy)

Yantra function as revelatory conduits of cosmic truths. Yantra, as instrument and spiritual technology, may be appropriately envisioned as prototypical and esoteric concept mapping machines or conceptual looms. Certain yantra are held to embody the energetic signatures of, for example, the Universe, consciousness, ishta-devata. Though often rendered in two dimensions through art, yantra are conceived and conceptualised by practitioners as multi-dimensional sacred architecture and in this quality are identical with their correlate the mandala. Meditation and trance induction that generates the yantra of the subtle body in the complementary modes of the utpatti-krama and saṃpanna-krama are invested in the various lineages of tantric transmission as exterior and interior sacred architecture that potentiate the accretion and manifestation of siddhi.
Khanna (2003: p.21) in linking Mantra, Yantra, Ishta-devata, and thoughtforms states:

Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are essentially 'thought forms' representing divinities or cosmic powers, which exert their influence by means of sound-vibrations.^[6]

Yantra is an aniconic temenos or tabernacle of deva, asura, genius loci or other archetypal entity. Yantra are theurgical device that engender entelecheia. Yantra are realised by sadhus through darshana and samyama. Yantra, or other permutations and cognate phenomena such as Mandala, Rangoli, Kolam, Rangavalli and other sacred geometrical traditions, are endemic throughout Dharmic Traditions. Some Hindu esoteric practitioners employ yantra, mantra and other items of the saṃdhyā-bhāṣā (Bucknell, et. al.; 1986: p.ix) in their sadhana, puja and yajna ^[7].

 

 UROBOROS ( Powerpoint)

Ouroboros is an ancient alchemical symbol depicting a snake or dragon – the serpent who devours herself, mates w/ herself & reproduces herself eternally. It is the Wheel of Time & represents the cyclical nature of things, eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end.

- Symbolizes the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, Life out of Death. The Ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal. The black half symbolizes the Night, Earth, and the destructive force of nature, yin, while the light half represents Day, Heaven, the generative, creative force, yang.

-The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. From there it passed to Phoenicia and then to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros ("the tail-devourer"). Norse, Hindu, Aztec, Chinese, and Native American mythology.

Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph. Ouroboros is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the Earth. The Ouroboros encircles the Universe; everything known and unknown is encompassed in its embracing coils, supporting and maintaining the earthly balance.

It injects life into death and death into budding life.

-It has a strong relation to the Androgyny, the united male and female principles, the reunion which births totality and creation. The union of the opposites "A return to wholeness."

Carl Jung saw the ouroboros as an archetype and the basic mandala of alchemy.

“The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In the age-old image of the ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself.”

The ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feed-back' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the ouroboros that she slays herself and brings herself to life, fertilizes herself and gives birth to herself.

Celestial Symbology

The zodiac is a tail-eating snake (Ouroboros) symbolizing the eternity of Time and the boundary of the universe.

The Milky Way Galaxy is believed to be the inspiration for the symbol of the Ouroboros. Myth refers to a serpent of light residing in the heavens. The Milky Way is this serpent, and viewed at galactic central point near Sagittarius, this serpent eats its own tail. The Milky Way galaxy keeps a great time cycle that ends in catastrophic change. The sign of the Suntelia Aion is the sun rising out of the mouth of the ouroboros, which will occur on the solstice December 21, 2012 which links with the Mayan Calendar as a symbolic date for evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time.

- Now we are going to look at numbers & geometry . “Words express man’s ideas; numbers express god’s reality.” writes S. Nichols “Jung & the Tarot” where she discusses the first card in the Tarot Deck which is not #1 but Zero the Fool – Frodo corresponds to the Fool.

- CIRCLE – first image – The concept of Zero, unknown in the ancient world, did not appear in Europe until the 12^th century - The discovery of this apparent ‘nothing’ enlarged man’s thinking, created the decimal system & philosophically concretized the paradox that ‘nothing’ is really something that occupies space & contains power. The power of zero is inherent in its circular form in that before a circle can be drawn there must be a center. The circle w/ the dot at its center is the universal sign for the sun, source of all warmth, light & power. This glyph also stands for the World Egg from whose fertile center all creation arose & continues to arise.

- circle w/ center also repress. the relat. between Ego & Self. Jung defines the ego as center of consciousness, while Self is the center of the entire psyche. “the ego stands to the self as the moved to the mover.” The ego evolves out of the Self.

THE FLOWER OF LIFE Drunvelo Melchizedek

What is Sacred Geometry?
When the teachings of geometry are used to show the ancient truth that all life emerges from the same blueprint, the intelligent force some call "God." When geometry is used to explore this great truth, a broader understanding of the universe unfolds until we can see that all aspects of reality become sacred. Understanding the simple truths of sacred geometry leads to an evolution of consciousness and an opening of the heart that is a next step in the process of human evolution.
True sacred geometric forms never fixate or stagnate on one single form. Instead they are actually in constant fluid transcendence and change (evolving or devolving) from one geometric form to another at their own speed or frequency. These ever-evolving states of geometry mirror the constantly evolving nature of the human consciousness.

- The proportion created by these intersecting two circles is called a Vesica Pisces. This is one of the simplest sacred geometry forms. It has been depicted around the world at sacred sites, most notably at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, England. 

Upon completing the 7th circle, you will be at the Seed of Life stage or the Genesis Pattern. This stage creates a tube torus.

- The Flower of Life symbol is considered to be sacred among many cultures around the world, both ancient and modern. Within this symbol can be found all the building blocks of the universe that we call the Platonic Solids. The symbol can be used as a metaphor to illustrate the connectedness of all life and spirit within the universe. 

- It can be found in the temples, art, and manuscripts of cultures from all over the world. The following are some of the locations in which the Flower of Life symbol has been sighted.

Egypt - The Temple of Osiris in Abydos[4][7][8][9] ^[10] and at Mount Sinai.^[9] Precisely how old these inscriptions are is unknown. Suggestions that they are over 6,000 years old^{[12][13][7][8][9]} and may date back to as long ago as 10,500 B.C. or earlier are entirely

Hungary - Magyarország - Carphatians.^[11]

Israel - Masada[9]

China - The Forbidden City[7] and various temples.^[9]

Japan - Various temples.^[9]

India[9] - The Harimandir Sahib (Golden Temple), Hampi, and the temples at Ajanta.^[7]

Turkey - Various old Roman sites.^[7]

Spain[7][9]

Austria[7]

Italy - Italian art from the 13th century (Wolfram 2002, p. 43).^[8]

North Africa - Morocco[7]

Middle East - Lebanon and various Islamic mosques.^[7]

South America - Peru[7]

North America - Mexico[7]

- Metatron's Cube" is a template that delineates the Platonic Solids.

Platonic Solids

- Are the five regular polyhedra discovered by the ancient Greeks. The Pythagoreans knew of the tetrahedron, the cube, and the dodecahedron; the mathematician Theaetetus added the octahedron and the icosahedron. Plato, speculated that these five solids were the shapes of the fundamental components of the physical universe.

The Platonic Solids are five crucial structures that form the building blocks of organic life. These five structures are found in minerals, animated and organic life forms, sound, music, language.

- The Egg of Life is significant because this portion of the template allows us to see the embryonic stages of life.

 - this process of evolving geometry can be seen as a metaphor that applies to Creation or Genesis. 

Arwen Evenstar & Nenya – 6 pt. star

In geometry, a torus (pl. tori) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in

three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle, which does not touch the circle

Torus was the Latin word for a cushion- the shape produced when a circle is rotated about a chord

resembles a round cushion

  (When the axis passes through the center of the circle, the torus degenerates into a sphere.

This case is normally excluded from the definition. With no further restrictions on the location

of the axis in this plane, there are three classes of standard tori: the ring torus, where the axis

is disjoint from the circle; the horn torus, where the axis is tangent to the circle;

and the spindle torus where the axis meets the circle in which distinct points)

NASSIM - dvd trailer (5 min) - Event Horizon Pt.1 – 4:33 – 9:00 - tetra, 64 grid, mayan, solar

  Pt.2 – 0:25 – 4:30 – torus 7:30 – 8:… glb. Warm.

  Pt.3 – 0 – 2:13 – super conducter ring et al

  Final Thoughts - 7 mins

  ??(Eowyn’s Dream …. ROTR P.1 SC. 7 0:27:50)

RING

- Ring like any technology is not evil on its own, rather it’s the state of consciousness that is using it = the power of knowledge, the knowledge of Creation - no wonder Dk. Side wants it = access to Infinite power & energy.

- The 3 rings of power were brought into the world thru the Elves by their innate power for creative envisioning, for the purpose of preserving beauty in the world. 3 = 2 the opposites balanced by the 1- the new life emerging from tension of the opposites. Elves were the immortal children of the Valar (ancient supernatural divine beings)

- Nenya-ring of adamant- Ring of Water, blood of Life – worn by Galadriel

This ring has a very interesting power...it holds back time. That is why in the Golden Wood of Lothlorien nothing ages. This is also why Galadriel can see things of the past, present,and things that have not yet come to pass.

-Vilya – sapphire, Ring of Air – the breath of Life – worn by Elrond. Vilya, has the power of protection and healing. Elrond used this ring to protect Frodo at the Ford and to heal him of his Morgul blade wound.

- Narya - red, Ring of Fire – Spirit of Life – worn by Gandalf - Its power is that it inspires courage and hope in its bearer and those around him. When Cirdan gave Narya to Gandalf he said this, "Take this ring, Master, for your labours will be heavy; but it will support you in the weariness that you have taken upon yourself. For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill.”

- Rings given to men & dwarves to assist them in caring for & leading their people.

- 7 Rings given to Dwarves miners & great craftsmen (7 is the number of redemption, made of 3 the divine principle + 4 the creative force)

- 9 rings given to men - 9 holds the promise of perfection

- Sauron (means the abhorred) secretly forged the One Ring to have dominion over all Rings, to read the thoughts of anyone who used them & to bind them to his will. - the One Ring is malevolent because it instills an addiction/attachment to power for the purpose of dominating & enslaving.

- When forging the One Ring w/ the fire of lust & hatred he lost some of his physical power to pour it into the Ring. That is why he needs a living being to carry it he can no longer take physical form.

- Just to clarify the term lust here we tend to associate lust with sexual impulse I would prefer to emphasis the predatory element –a primitive reptilian limbic sort of craving.

- Tolkien – “so great was the Ring’s power of lust that anyone who used it became mastered by it, it was beyond the strength of any will (even Sauron’s ) to injure it, cast it away, or neglect it.”

  - he equated the Ring w/ the machine, technology & industry that he saw as destroying the beautiful country side he loved. I would say technology itself is not necessarily bad but when it is used by this form of consciousness we call Evil it produces the horrors of genocide & ecocide we are all familiar with.

- Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Ring of the Nibelungen

Ring symbolizes bond between man & nature thru the exercise of will. When a human being wears the ring it is a sign of his dominion over nature, but it enslaves him to every sort of craving. Later Siegfried & Brunehild, because of their awareness of Love, rejected power & cast the ring back into the Rhine in order to destroy evil in the world.

- Lord Acton’s statement, “Power corrupts, & absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Is validated by the research of R.J. Rummel - examined underlying causes of genocide throughout history, found concentration of power in the hands of an elite, no matter what country, ethnicity, religion, whenever they amassed too much unchecked power atrocities were inevitable against their own people & others. -Solution is to foster education, knowledge, democracy to diffuse power.                        

  (Iris Chang (Rape of Nanking)                                                                                     

What we would call Evil is inseparable from this power lust, a vampiric force incapable of creating, it feeds off of Life. Life is a manifestation of Eros/Love is infinite creativity & energy. Evil seeks to incarnate to gain access to this infinite energy to feed itself & serve its own agenda.

- GOOD NEWS! Evil consumes itself in the end. Our concern is the degree of destruction it wreaks on the way to its downfall.

- The only REAL enemy is ignorance. Consciousness is the determining factor here, the amount of destruction can be mitigated by awareness & understanding of what we are dealing with. Basic mindfulness practice may well be one of the most helpful tools we have. To be able to observe with objectivity the contents of ones own mind. To learn to respond instead of react.

- LOTR is the vision of where we are now, an urgent message instructing us as to the nature of what we are confronting both inside & out. And offering some directions regarding what can be done.

– first step involves overcoming fear – the emotional plague sweeping the planet. Learning how to sustain Hope in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. And trust in the power of Eros, the creative engine of the universe to open us to the new Dream.

EVIL as MEME :

 - I’m proposing that Evil is non-biological, not a part of Nature at all, extra-terrestrial ie not of this earth/biosphere & inorganic, meaning existing in an extra-dimensional space.

- I’ve come to think of Evil as a MEME – term borrowed from R. Dawkins (Selfish Gene)

- increment of an idea, a unit of cultural information, the informational & cultural equivalent of a gene, that replicates itself in a manner similar to a virus.

- a Meme represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, subject to mutation, crossover & adaptation. Can be passed on from one generation to the next by non-genetic means, by imitation, ie. copied from person to person. Memes use our brains as copying machines. - - Language facilitates meme replication.

– Memes are not evil in & of themselves, they are bits of information that compete for space in our minds. They coalesce to form beliefs or programs that operate autonomously in our mental landscape. – Have you ever felt preyed upon by the contents of your own mind? Could it be that somewhere along the way in our evolution we became infected by a parasitic informational virus?

–could it be that this Mean Meme – what we would call Evil – uses our mind & biological energy system to replicate itself for its own nefarious purposes? If this is so could it be that some of us are more vulnerable to infection than others? We know this is the case for bio-viruses & parasites why would be different for informational version.

- I would posit that the human male is the prime target of this Mean Meme perhaps due to the presence of testosterone which would serve its intentions more readily than…

- the nature of female hormonal constitution produces oxytocin (Dr. Helen Fisher) known as the bonding hormone not so conducive to aggression, ( mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain.)

- also historically we do not see women as a group, perpetrating the degree of brutality & violence that we see in men. Although we certainly see women supporting the men who carry out such atrocities.

- Now l want to be clear that I’m not blaming or bashing men here, quite the contrary I think men have been the victims of this thing to the point that once infected their humanity is destroyed. I do not believe humans in their natural state are capable of evil, but once infected, its like a possession state, there is no human present anymore.

- we know that there are biological parasites that actually work on the neurochemistry of the victim to have them crave the foods that would be good for the parasite. A parasite doesn’t just take nourishment from the host, it takes over the hosts Brain so the host thinks the parasite is actually part of the hosts body, so the host nurtures it.

- Now if this notion of an extra-dimensional inorganic force that influences our mind, sounds outlandish it actually is sort of a modern take on the notion of the Archons, from the Gnostic writings specifically from the pagan Sethian Gnostic texts as elucidated by John Lash in his book “Not in His Image”

 (- In this Gnostic creation myth the Aeons being of Light dance in ecstatic union in the Pleroma. Where they periodically send out creative plumes of light into the Cosmos. The Aeon Sophia becomes entranced by what was being generated in an area of the Cosmic creation that was to become earth. Fascinated She began to dream of the future of beings there, Anthropos. Her attraction eventually caused her to separate from the Pleroma and like a great torrent of Light she shot her essence out into the cosmos to the region of our solar system. In the tumult of forming the being of earth, Gaia, an inorganic race of beings emerged which she had not intended. These were the Archons, envious of the human beings they act in ways to torment us.)

 

  J. Lash – Archons 3:10 – 16:40 (13 min) - see images of Arwen & Galadriel

Sethian Gnosticism

Many of their concepts, derived from a fusion of Hellenic philosophy, Platonic (c. 427–c. 347 BC), and later, Neoplatonic (ca. 253 AD) concepts with the Old Testament. This was also done by Hebrew scholar Philo (20 BC - 40 AD), who had engaged in a similar fusion.

QUESTIONS?????

From here we go back to the films to look at the Shire & Hobbits

 

SHIRE / FRODO / GOLLUM

Shire: FOTR SC. 2-3-4

- realm of the Great Mother, goddess of fertility, verdant, voluptuous, nature – Divine expression of Gaia, the Garden of the infinite creativity of nature & organic Life.

- The Shire is the place of Union with the Divine Feminine, playground of the innocent Child & the natural unfolding of the cycles of Nature

- luminous green is the color of Heart Chakra = Eros/Love

- Merry & Pippin embody the Child Archetype & also the Trickster element in the story. (More tomorrow….)

- historically Shire refers to the period 5000-6000 yrs. ago of the Goddess worshipping cultures of the pre-patriachal period – as well as the lands & traditions of indigenous cultures throughout history to the present day where reverence for the earth & ancient shamanic practices still survive such as; Latin America (incl. Mexico), Asia, Africa,Indonesia

  - (s.amer:Argentina,Bolivia,Brazil,Chile,Colombia,Ecquador,Guyanna,Paraquay,Peru,Suriname,

Uraguay,Venezuela)

  - (c.amer:Belize,Costa Rica,El Salvador,Equador,Guatemala,Honduras,Nicaragua,Panama)

- Mythically the Shire corresponds to the Garden of Eden, the Paradise, where Adam & Eve live blissfully until they come to the knowledge of good & evil. Just as Frodo lives in blissful ignorance until he comes to be the bearer of the One Ring ie knowledge of evil.

- You’ll notice that there are no living mothers in this story. - Frodo’s mother & father are dead, the mothers of both Aragorn & Eowyn died of grief. Arwen’s mother Celebrian was attacked by Orcs & although physically healed by Elrond she never recovered spiritually & thus left Mid. Earth for the Undying Lands.

- This graphically illustrates the sorry state of our current relationship to the Divine Mother – ie. we don’t have a mature conscious relationship w/ Her & thus a condition of profound sorrow exists in the human psyche as a result. This lack of conscious connection to the Mother is fostered by the forces of Evil in modern times & encourages ecocide & the horrendous levels of violence against women eg. DRC

- Psychologically, Shire represents the developmental stage of infancy, the unconscious blissful union with the Mother. The Hobbits are like children playing in the garden, the Child archetype, living in a state of innocence oblivious to the perils of the larger world ie. until Gandalf the Wizard/Shaman comes to town, then there are fireworks that illuminate things hidden. The peace of unconsciousness & blissful ignorance are disturbed – there is a loss of innocence & the journey to adulthood & individuation begins.

- notice the fireworks that create the most excitement is the Dragon – symbol of secret knowledge. Bilbo’s adventures began when Gandalf nudged him out the door to go off dragon hunting.

- Bilbo is the Wise Old Man of his tribe, the one who ventures out from the protective arms of the mother. Now GANDALF the initiator, has returned to guide Bilbo to the next stage of his life & to help him pass his vocation on to his kin, Frodo. (see FOTR P.1 Sc. 7 0:30:46 )

- Frodo comes this destiny by Fate, not by choice, here Frodo’s experience perfectly illustrates Jung’s statement, “Free will is the ability to do gladly, that which you must do!”

- - Frodo’s journey to return the One Ring to the crack of Mt. Doom is a template for the path of individuation, which all humans must take. All the main characters in the story are in their own way following the same template.-

- the Quest is to confront the Shadow & turn away from the Evil which seeks to possess our mind leading us away from Self & the ecstatic relat. with Gaia. Frodo does not make the journey alone however, he is accompanied by his faithful friend & gardener Sam Wise Gamges. A gardener is one who tends to growing things serves & nurtures Life. Sam rep. that part of the psyche that keeps us connected to life when we must make the perilous journey to the Underworld. At the end of the story Sam literally carries Frodo to the crack of Mt. Doom. Similar to Nishubur in Inanna…

- Frodo whose name means ‘wise by experience’ equates to the card of the Fool in the Tarot:

  ( see Picasa Fool images)

- Psychologically the Fool rep. the irrational impulse toward change & opening into the unknown. Stands at the threshold of a journey auguring a new chapter of life. The Fool symbolizes the ambiguity, excitement & fear that accompany the great journey of Life. - bag at the end of his staff symbolic of the mind & its burden.

- In the Tarot Deck the card following the Fool is the Magician in this case Gandalf

GANDALF

 - the wizard likely modeled after tales of the Alchemical Masters of old

- The role of wizards is to foster, nourish, & strengthen the universal spirit w/in humanity by educating them, advising them & keeping their hearts & minds continuously focused on the ‘Way of the Light’. - Gandalf’s struggles illumine the choices that befall all of us no matter how far we rise in knowledge, power & influence.

  (see - FOTR P.2 Sc. 36 0:36:14 ….

  2 TOW. P.1 Sc. 15..0:54:00 - see Powerpoint Aries #64

- During the confrontation w/ the Balrog he refers to himself as the “servant of the secret fire.” By sacrificing himself to the Balrog he not only saves Frodo, the Ring & the Fellowship but he is transformed from Gand/grey to Gand/white

- (Calcinatio) refers to the alchemical process of subjecting a substance to intense heat in order to burn away the dross to reveal the gold. Jung determined that fire symbolizes the libido & desirousness.

- Calcinatio signifies the descent of consciousness into the animal realm where it must endure the fiery energies of instinct & emerge purified. The fire of calcinatio is a purging whitening fire that acts on the nigredo (the black prima material) & turns it white - the Albedo.

- Psychologically the ordeal of Fire refers to enduring or holding intense affect ( emot. energy) that express as desire for ego pleasure or power. When desire is burned away we experience non- attachment.

- there is a relationship between Gandalf & the Elves in that they both depict what we are capable of & inevitably aspiring to become. Elves are like Aikido or Zen masters who through practice & discipline are no longer subject to the distractions & temptations of the unexamined mind.

- Tolkien describes wizards as incarnated angels.

  (see Fox & Shedrake NDIR #2593 Physics of Angels) 03:25

- Gandalf the White like Galadriel is a psychopomp escort of souls to the underworld at the time of death as well as the guide for the journey to other states of consciousness.

  ROTK P. 2 Sc. 49/13 0:36:22

 Gandalf as Shaman- (see Powerpoint #60 – 63)

 -Psychoactive Amanitas are mushrooms that contain the psychoactive chemicals ibotenic acid and muscimol. They have a long history of use in Asia and Northern Europe. They are best known for their distinctive appearance (bright reds and yellows with white spots).

- Muscimol (Agarin, Pantherine) is the major psychoactive alkaloid present in many mushrooms of the Amanita genus. Unlike psilocybin, a tryptamine, muscimol is a potent, selective agonist of the GABA_A receptor.

- Amanita muscaria contains two main active ingredients, Ibotenic acid and its derivative Muscimol. Muscimol is the product of the decarboxylation or drying of ibotenic acid and it is thought that muscimol is as much as ten times more potent than ibotenic acid.

GOLLUM

- first appears in Moria FOTR SC. 34/7 0:21:44

-Frodo’s first encounter w/ the Shadow the beginning of his loss of innocence. This occurs in the Moria a plce deep in the earth = to the Underworld the dark hidden depths where we meet those aspects of the self that don’t usually appear in the light of day.

– Gollum depicts the nature of inner conflict between the Id (Freud) or Shadow & the Ego. Shadow is not Evil but when it is unconscious it leaves the door open for Evil to sneak in through fear, ignorance & greed.

- discuss Shadow: unexpressed, denied, rejected aspects of self

- Hobbits don’t seek to dominate everyone else but they do succumb to addiction are possessed by the Ring & wind up doing evil on its behalf.

- Gandalf knows that he would be seduced by the Ring through his desire to do good & is able to resist that temptation. Consequently he is able to move on to the next stage of his transformation as we saw in his confrontation w/ the Balrog.

- keep in mind Gollum is the manifestation of the struggle going on inside Frodo as he becomes more & more aware of nature of the Ring & his Fate.

  See: 2 Towers P.1 Sc. 28 1:37:07 Frodo/Sam/Gollum

  Sc. 29 Gollum conflict

  2 Towers P.2 Sc.30/60 1:33:40 Nazgul/ good in this world

  Sc. 34/64 1:42:20 1:45:00

  Sc. 35/65 Sam stories...

  Sc. 36/66 Gollum’s plan

 

****************************************************************************************************************

MLK “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.”

 5,000,000 years ago - Symbolic communication (vocalizations, gestures). The first primates (australopithecines) who adapted to the savannah had their hands freed for other purposes. Cooperation and communication became useful in these new, open environments and simple communication and gestures became instictively advantageous. (Chimpanzees have already been proven to have the capacity to learn sign language)

 2,000,000 years ago - Primitive language, tools, & cranial expansion. Basic communication and cognitive abilities exist with the appearance of the genus Homo (Homo habilus, then Homo erectus) . Fire and hunting are new skills of this species, and simple language undoubtedly helped for cooperative hunting and social interaction. Homo will continually evolve larger craniums over the next two million years.

 100,000 years ago - Modern language & cognitive abilities. Syntax structures (supported by evolution of Broca's area of the brain) have co-evolved with improved cognitive abilities to process information passed via language by Homo sapiens sapiens. The result is this hunter-gatherer species with cranial capacity twice that of H. erectus, and increased technological and cultural complexity.

 

10,000 years ago - Agriculture & civilization. Mastery of controlled agriculture allows people to support larger populations in permanent settlements. This allows for specialization of skills and trade, spurring more complex economic and government systems.

 600 years ago - Printing press. This technology started the original information age, as the populous became literate and able to build upon the knowledge of others. This initiated a new age in religious and scientific thought.

Human language may have emerged by the transition to behavioral modernity, which occurred some 164,000 years ago at the latest, in the Upper Paleolithic. A common assumption is that behavioral modernity and the emergence of language coincide and are dependent on each other. Others would push back the origin of language to some 200,000 years ago, the time of the appearance of archaic Homo sapiens (Middle Paleolithic), or even into the Lower Paleolithic, to some 500,000 years ago. This question significantly depends on the view taken of the communicative skills of Homo neanderthalensis. A lengthy stage of pre-language, intermediate between the vocalizations of non-human primates and fully developed human language, is assumed by some scholars, while others (e.g. Richard Klein) view the acquisition of language and behavioral modernity as sudden, possibly linked to a genetic mutation (for an overview see Kenneally 2007).

LOTR the Masculine

See image of Fellowship Sc. 27 1:37:27

- Our story begins with Evil entering the world after the sword of the King is broken.

- Swords have a rich history of symbolism. We know of Excalibar in the Arthurian legends. In Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Siegfried discovers pieces of the sword Balmunga & succeeds in reforging it.

- the sword is similar in shape & resplendence to fire & flames so is assoc. w/ the alchemical purifying fire (calcinatio) - indeed Anduril, the reforged blade is called Flame of the West.

  (on the blade is written, “I am Anduril who was Narsil sword of Elendil. Let the thralls of - Mordor flee me”.)

- Notice sword is Word w/ an S in front – The suit of Swords in the Tarot deals w/ the human mind in its most potent form: the capacity to create good or evil according to the strength of ones beliefs, convictions & principles.

- pay attention also to the shape of the blades: the straight blade corresponds to the Solar/Masc. energy while the curved & more rounded blade (more crescent shape) are considered Lunar/Fem. eg. Arwen’s sword Hadafang has a curved blade. (means ‘throng cleaver’ once belonged to Elven princess Idril who wed a mortal man & bore Earendil father of Elrond)

- I consider the sword as a Phallic symbol representing the masc. god image & the Broken Sword a symbol of castration. Eugene Monick in his 2 books - Phallos & Castration delves deeply into the phallic wound & castration, central themes of LOTR. Healing the wound of castration is essential for Phallos/Sword to come back into the service of Life as co-equal with the archetypal Fem. Monick writes:

  - Phallos is the god image in its masculine form.

  - Phallos is the governing symbol of masculinity & is sacred to men as the manifestation of the inner self.

  - Phallos is co-equal with the feminine, as Phallos Protos is the psychological equivalent of the maternal uroborus in the origin of life.

From: Castration & Male Rage by Eugene Monick

  -To understand masculine psychology archetypally, one must understand phallos & grasp how it is that the phallic archetype permeates development & behavior.

  - Archetypes are primordial structural patterns within the human psyche, according to Jung, “archetypes are systems of readiness for action, while simultaneously images & emotions where psyche is attached to Nature.”

- Now impo to distinguish bet. Patriarchy & masculinity: patriarchy is defined as the evolutionary cultural stage of the past few thousand years characterized by themes of the superiority of the masc. & spiritual over the natural & feminine, as well as domination, submission, hierarchy.

- Patriarchy is NO the same as masculinity & must not be equated with it. In fact men & masc. principle in general have been as bludgeoned by patriarchal ideology as women have. & I believe LOTR is a lucid illustration of this issue as we will see.

 - Another crucial point re: the broken sword as a castration image – the castration wound in the masc. is most often discussed as something coming from the fem. ie. Mother complex implying that men should beware of the castrating potential of women & therefore a reason to control & dominate them. When in fact, men are in far more danger of being castrated by other men, beginning with the father.

  Denethor & Faramir see - 2 Tow. P.2 Sc. 41/11

  ROTK P.1 Sc.22 1:15:00

  Sc.26 1:23:44

From : Phallos:Sacred Image of the Masculine - Masc. Shadow is motivated by conquest, domination rather than union & cooperation.

- “New consciousness, the movement beyond patriarchy, no longer requires the diminishment of the feminine for phallic establishment. Masculinity finds its center as inner phallic reality. This together with the anima, constitutes a restoration of wholeness in a male. (Aragorn claims his Kingship or wholeness due to his unwavering commitment to his Anima, Arwen the inner image of the Divine Fem.)

- Monick goes on to say, “New consciousness is aware of evil and of the shadow as archetypal qualities but also as personal qualities. The conflict resulting from gender competition results in the possibility of shadow integration. When one is innocent, one is unconscious.”

  -Aragorn –whose name means Royal Zeal, takes up the reforged blade, the healed Phallos but before he can claim Kingship he is required to make the journey to the Underworld place of the dead. (see FOTR P.1 Sc. 25 …. 1:34:30

  P.2 Sc. 28/1 …. 0:00:30

  ROTK P.1 Sc. 30 …..1:40:00

- The theme of Kingship is central to masculine psychological development as well as to the development of the animus or masc. principle in women. The King is the representation of Divine masc. on earth & the ancient Father Sky God. His role is to hold the center of the realm, to maintain order so Life can take root & be fertile. If the King is wounded the realm is barren & vulnerable to attack, chaos presses in from the outside. (in the Grail myth the Fisher King is wounded in the groin/genitalia so the realm lies fallow). Reminiscent of broken sword

- The mature King fosters generativity & creativity, is not threatened by the creativity of others in the realm so has no need to control or thwart.

- The need for this kind of Sacral Kingship is palpable in our time as manifest in the incredible

outpouring of adoration for Barack Obama the current carrier of this archetype for the world.

 Whether he can live up to expectations remains to be seen…..

 

Leo – Grail myth kingship/queenship

 - Aragorn & Arwen represent the (Hieros Gamos) marriage of matter & spirit – the King & Queen or god & goddess in the psyche Conjunctio-oppositorum

Hieros Gamos or Hierogamy (Greek ιερός γάμος, ιερογαμία "holy wedding") refers to sexual intercourse or marriage between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. Such rituals from a secular viewpoint are also known as religious prostitution or temple prostitution.

In Wicca, the Great Rite is a ritual where a dagger is placed by a man point first into a challice held by a woman, symbolizing the divine union of the Hieros gamos. It is mostly performed on Beltane night (1 May 1),

- This mystic marriage is most often pictured as the union of the ‘contra-sexual’ meaning the union of the opposites in form of masc/fem.

- However I think there is a broader application for this union of the opposites that goes beyond just the contra-sexual to union with otherness in the form of the Shadow. Shadow as Jung defined it is not evil but personifies those aspects of the self that have been rejected by the ego & thus repressed. Often some of our greatest gifts are thrust into the Shadow because they rep characteristics deemed unacceptable to the ego. When we are unconscious of the personal Shadow it operates in an autonomous way & can thereby leave the door open for Archetypal Evil to enter.

- In LOTR the pairs of opposites or ego/shadow pairs are personified as: Gollum/Smeagol Legolas/Gimli – Theoden/WT – Aragorn/Boromir – Boromir/Faramir – Gandalf/Saruman – Elrond/Denethor & in the Fem. Lt. Galadriel/Dk Galadriel …( define Ego)

Just want to go a bit deeper here re: integrating the opposites. (powerpoint #12)

 - In “The Mystery of the Coniunctio”, Edinger, “6 is the second manifestation of the number 3 rep. geometrically by the 2 overlapping triangles. In alchemical symbolism the downward pointing triangle is water, the upward pointing triangle is fire. The 2 tog repr. The union of the opposites in the 6 pt. star.

- Jung, Mysterium Conjunctionis, “The factors which come tog. in the conjunctio are conceived as opposites, either confronting one another in enmity or attracting one another in love.”

- Edinger, “When we are attracted to a desired object or repulsed by a hated object we are caught in the drama of the opposites. The opposites are truly the dynamo of the psyche, the motor that keeps the psyche alive. But just having the experience of being attracted or repelled by things does not constitute consciousness. Consciousness requires a simultaneous experience of the opposites & the acceptance of that experience. The greater the degree of acceptance, the greater the consciousness.” This is what is meant by holding the tension of the opposites, an exercise we are called to engage in our time. The idea is to hold this tenion in awareness long enough for a new form to emerge which is the union of opposites.

- Edinger goes on to write, “the most crucial & terrifying pair of opposites is good & evil. The very survival of the ego depends on how it relates to this matter. In order to survive it is absolutely essential that the ego experience itself as more good than bad. This explains the creation of the Shadow, for the young ego can experience very little of its own badness w/out succumbing to total demoralization. It also accounts for another universal phenomenon- the process of locating evil. Evil has to be located, fixed & established as residing in some particular spot. It is exceedingly dangerous to have free-floating evil. Someone must personally carry the burden of evil. (ie. Frodo) . As the ego matures the individual becomes able to take on the task of being the carrier of the opposites & in so doing contributes to the creation of the Conjunctio.”

- Jung, “The ego keeps its integrity only if it does not identify w/ one of the opposites & if it understands how to hold the balance between them. This is possible only if it remains conscious of both at once.”

 

 

 Theoden

- the wounded King rendered impotent through the seduction & treachery of WT – his Shadow

 – almost succumbs to despair

- the state of conscious. rep by Rohan honors embodiment the Horse

 

Eomer

  - horse master, leader of the Rohirrim – the Knights of Rohan- Horse symbol on the flag – horse is the bodily vehicle the rider is the Spirit.

  - represents Warrior archetype

– wears the horse emblem on helmet over the 3^rd eye

Father

- Elrond –father of Arwen – hope wains he fears for his daughter & thus attempts to convince her to forsake her love for A. & leave w/ him to the Undying lands

- Denethor – succumbs to despair becomes the Neg. castrating Father

Wizard/Wiseman/Shaman/Magus

- Gandalf – open, wise, magic wizard

- Saruman- man of craft, cleverness & cunning

- Wands – also a phallic symbol but pertains to the domain of intuition & creative imagination

- Bilbo

Boromir- Aragorn Shadow – what he fears – to be consumed by hubris

Faramir – brothers embody each others Shadow

Legolas – wild & free green leaves

- Bow curved, crescent Lunar – arrow masc. concept of tension related to the Life Force Fem/Spiritual force masc.

Gimli – doubleheaded axe sim. to Hindu vajra, Zeus lighning bolt symbol of the power of Light & celestial illumination curved blade serves Fem.

  - axe assoc w/ the Labyrinth denotes the world of instinct, pilgrimage in search of the Center, - Dwarves are miners digging deep into the earth

Sam gift of Elven Rope- sacred inner path binding outer consciousness of man. Intellect L. brain e/ spiritual essence R. brain

 

This brings us to a discussion about the relationship between human beings vegetative life

depicted in LOTR

TREES

- First we see the Party Tree in the Shire - The Tree on the flag of Gondor

- Tree of the King – Trees of Rivendell , Lothlorien & Fanghorn Forest

- The Tree of Life one of the most essential traditional symbols

- Represents the life of the Cosmos & all generative & regenerative processes

- It is the center of the world, the world axis, its roots go down to the underworld, trunk rep.

  the middle world or earth, its branches connect to the heavens.

- Stands for inexhaustible life therefore immortality

- Kabbalah tree of life derived from the flower of life.

- Sometimes identified w/ the elixir of life & philosophers stone. Many traditions

  hold certain kinds of trees as sacred.

TREES ( Molison NDIR)

- so full of hubris is Saruman that he overlooks the intelligence of Nature, to his peril.

- Ents rise up to overthrow Saruman by releasing the river – Solutio

    

FOTR P.1 Sc. 18 2 TOWERS: P.2

  Sc. 36/6 0:19:30…… Sc. 52/22… Sc. 56/26 .1:21:00 ..Sc.59/29

The other member of the vegetable kingdom that has also been called

  the Tree of Life is the mushroom; a fascinating being indeed not only

  for its psycho active qualities that we will discuss later

  but also for the role it plays in the ecosystem.

  (See Paul Stamets video)

LOTR – the Feminine

  - it is true there is not as much differentiation of the Fem principle in this story w/ only 3

  female characters, & the Shire as the Great Mother, because there are no living mother

  characters.

- Furthermore it is authored by a man in the mid 20^th century. Nevertheless, if we dig down a bit deeper there is considerable richness in what we do find.

- I also wonder about just how much of the Feminine has been submerged during these millennia of oppression & what will be revealed when the phallic wound is healed & there is a safe ground for her to fully appear & take her stand. Perhaps some clues about this are implied in Eowyn’s dream which we will explore later.

  EOWYN ( See Picasa Eowyn)

• - Eowyn is the only human/mortal female in this story corresponds to the Kore in Greek myth, the maiden Persephone who eventually becomes Queen of the Underworld. The figures of Arwen & Galadriel could be viewed as aspects of her feminine self ie. what she is aspiring to & becoming conscious of in terms of her own individuation.

. - Eowyn means horse maiden, horse joy          

- HORSE symbolism is impo in relation to Eowyn & to Rohan – the image of a horse is on their flag

- Domestication in Eurasia 5-6000 yrs. ago – Neolithic period

- First used for food, then rode, were key to establishment of great empires, means of creating & extending civilization ie. cavalry

- Cirlot : ancient symbol of the cyclic movement of phenomena, intense desires & instincts (were dedicated to Mars) - its fleetness connects to Wind, Sea Foam, Fire & Light

- Jung: symbol of the Mother within (Demeter image w/ head of black mare), assoc. intuitive understanding, the magic side of man, also to baser side of man assoc w/ Pluto & Neptune

- Nep. Lashes horses up out of the waves so rep.cosmic forces,

- astrol. Nep. symbolizes unconscious itself, dreams, visions, imagination, Solutio

- White horse in dreams is an omen of death, white horses were drowned in honor of Poseidon god of Sea & creator of horses

- Epona goddess of horses in Celtic traditions & in Roman cavalry she presided over health & fertility of the animal. Later known as Rhiannon in Welsh mythology

- She appears as a water nymph reclining on the back of a mare, also on a horse leading an individual on a journey to the Underworld

- Horse is the image of Embodiment, the pleasure of the body, deep vulnerability combined with tremendous strength, connection w/ Artemis & Aphrodite (Eowyn & Arwen)

  - woman & horse mirror one anothers sensitivity, power & joy

- White horses are often associated with the sun chariot,^[1] with warrior-heroes, with fertility (in both mare and stallion manifestations) or with an end-of-time saviour

From earliest times white horses are mythologised with exceptional properties, transcending the normal world by having wings (Pegasus from Greek mythology) or having horns (the unicornThere are also white horses who are divinatory, who prophesy or warn of danger.

White horse bears the hero or god figure in ceremonial roles or in triumph over negative forces. Greek mythology, the white winged horse Pegasus was the son of Poseidon, in Poseidon's role as horse-god. And Kalki the tenth incarnation of Vishnu and final world saviour, is predicted to appear riding a white horse, or in the form of a white horse.^[5]

In Blackfoot mythology, the snow deity Aisoyimstan is a white-coloured man in white clothing who rides a white horse.^[27]

Kanthaka was a white horse that was a royal servant and favourite horse of Prince Siddhartha, who later became Gautama Buddha. Siddhartha used Kanthaka in all major events described in Buddhist texts prior to his renunciation of the world. Following the departure of Siddhartha, it was said that Kanthaka died of a broken heart.^[13]

Patricia Broersma, “Riding into your Mythic Life” writes horses enable us to move into a relationship w/ Larger Self & imaginal life ie. developing imaginal life to point of feeling it in the body. She claims having a relationship with a horse is a partnership where the rider shares leadership rather than forcing the horse to obey.

- Represents the sanctity & delight of the body – Arwen incarnation of Eros/Love calls forth the Waters of Life in the form of Horses to overwhelm the Nazgul

- Gandalf rides Shadowfax white horse.

-

 

( see: 2 Towers - P.1 Sc. 8 …0::25:40)

- E. inner condition for women today - the Father/King is Wounded, in that he has fallen into unconsciousness by the seduction of Wormtongue, his Shadow & is rendered impotent, thus the Realm is infertile & unprotected. (Fisher King)

- Her own father was killed by Orcs, as was Aragorns’ father (can be considered as servants of the evil Meme predatory thought forms that contaminate our mind inhibiting creativity & destroying connection to the fem) Her mother died of grief. Inner masc. allies gone- King’s son is dead, her brother Eomer, a positive inner masc ally is banished, due to treachery of WT (neg. animus) her homeland is under siege, she is left to confront WT alone. He gives voice to her deepest fears & she is stunned/paralyzed like an animal caught by the stare of a snake.

- (See 2 Tower P.1 Sc. 20 1:13:49……1:15:00

- WT - once Grima, a man of Rohan =Vampire infected by Saruman to whom he is completely enslaved. We could spend hours talking about the Vampire Archetype which has global significance for our time, sucking the Life out of the planet on every level. Isn’t it interesting that into 19^th century tuberculosis was called “consumption” & believed to be caused by vampire attacks & today, we the people, are encouraged to identify ourselves as “consumers” & to consider this notion not only as something to aspire to but something that fuels the economic system of the world!!

-

- But in terms of the intra psychic condition of women I would submit, we are besieged by a Vampiric neg. animus that plagues us on the inside.

- Eowyn’s initiation is to master the Sword by integrating the Inner King, not projecting him onto an outer male. Her Sword –S –word is Sovereignty - a woman who has claimed her Queenship is the ruler of her own inner landscape, in equal partnership with the inner King who maintains order in the realm so creativity can flourish. ( independent self governance)

  (see 2 Towers P.1 Sc.26 1:34:30

- Modern women & the feminine in general are struggling to emerge from 5000 yrs. of oppression, abuse, torture, imprisonment , rape, murder still going on as we speak in many places in the outer world.

- Women internalize a punishing & or infantilizing omnipotent father figure that is always watching ready to attack if she is not good/perfect enough ie. conforming to a model concocted outside of herself usually by some male authority figure.

- Once Theoden undergoes his own transformation he is able to acknowledge Eowyn’s power & value.

-

Jungian writer Helen Luke believes Eowyn personifies the dilemma of the modern woman.

- “How is a woman, when she feels the immense fascination of the power of the spirit stirring in her, to welcome it and yet remain true to her womanhood, or how is she to rediscover her femininity if she has lost it? How is a man to realize the values of the heart without losing the bright sword of his spirit in the fogs of emotion?”

- Eowyn projects her animus onto a man whom she unconsciously knows is unattainable. She wants to follow him in His way not to find her own way- Springs of her womanhood are frozen she longs to be a man.

. (see ROTK P.1 Sc.5 0:19:36 the cup

  SC. 31 Aragorn goes to Underw.

- Eowyn’s dream: (see ROTK P.1 Sc.7 0:27:50)

- Wave=Solutio – boundary dissolution – awareness of ecstatic union w/ the Divine/ Nep. Old structures are washed away.

  - Water was thought of as the womb & Solutio as the return to the womb for rebirth.

  - Solutio generates great anxiety because the hard won state of ego autonomy is being threatened w/ dissolution. It causes one form to disappear & a new regenerated form to emerge.

 - Love & or Lust are agents of Solutio. Eowyn has fallen in love w/ Aragorn & is also motivated by love for her uncle Theoden & her people, the people of Rohan

  - Solutio solves psychological problems by transferring the issue to the realm of feeling, ability to soften, melt, flow.

 - Edinger on Alchemy, “Solutio comes from the Self. What is worth saving in the ego is saved. What is not worth saving is dissolved & melted down in order to be recast in new life forms. Thus the ongoing life process renews itself. The ego that is committed to this transpersonal process will cooperate w/ it & will experience its own diminishment as a prelude to the coming of the larger personality, the wholeness of the Self.”

- Her dream places her staring into the black abyss the Darkness that must be faced, embraced & uncursed. She is forced to WAIT much like Inanna when her dead body hung on the meat hook in the underworld there was nothing to DO. & in that waiting a new more mature & powerful femininity grows. One that

- Helen Luke on Eowyn & modern women, “The moment is upon us when victory will hang upon the readiness of women to confront the most powerful of all dark forces ranged against us; that which no man can conquer with his sword, that which is vulnerable only to the newly found sword of the feminine spirit.”

 

 see ROTK P.2 SC. 50/14 0:37:40 Eowyn & Nazgul

  Sc. 56/20 0:47:39 Arag. heals Eowyn

- - She only kills to save one she loves. Oxytocin bonding hormone ie. Takes Merry off to battle

- stands on the event horizon – The Present Moment – where all manifestation is collapsing into Infinity while a Light shines behind her ie. all that is radiating into the vacuum which must be full of energy – not EMPTY at all.

 On the brink-of the discovery of another world – event horizon – radiation=expression/Spirit/Light masculine comes out of the contraction ??? She faces the darkness & waits

- Manjir Samanta-Laughton – Dark Matter rep. the Goddess

- Arwen Undomiel See Picasa Arwen

- Royal Maiden under the setting sun – Evenstar – evening star Venus – Crone – 1690 yrs older than Aragorn

- Corresponds to Goddess of Love, the physical vessel for the incarnation of Eros –erotic yearning for a full embodied expression of the creative potential of the Universe & the force of harmonization of all facets of Life.

- She bears the Evenstar (see Powerpoint #41-45) - presents it as a gift to Aragorn

 Evenstar-Caduceus …..The caduceus (Greek) is typically depicted as a short herald's staff entwined by two serpents in the form of a double helix, and sometimes is surmounted by wings. This staff first was borne by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It also was called the wand of Hermes when he superseded Iris in much later myths.

In later Antiquity the caduceus may have provided the basis for the astrological symbol representing the planet Mercury and in Roman iconography was often depicted being carried in the left hand of the Greek god Hermes (Roman god, Mercury), the messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, gamblers, liars and thieves.

The caduceus is sometimes used as a symbol for medicine, especially in North America, through confusion with the traditional medical symbol, the rod of Asclepius, which has only a single snake and no wings.

As early as 1910, Dr. William Hayes Ward discovered that symbols similar to the classical caduceus appeared not infrequently on Mesopotamian cylinder seals. He suggested the symbol originated some time between 3000 and 4000 BCE, and that it might have been the source of the Greek caduceus.^[1] A.L. Frothingham incorporated Dr. Ward's research into his own work, published in 1916, in which he suggested that the prototype of Hermes was an "Oriental deity of Babylonian extraction" represented in his earliest form as a snake god. From this perspective, the caduceus was originally representative of Hermes himself, in his early form as the god Ningishzida, "messenger" of the "Earth Mother".^[2] However, more recent classical scholarship makes no mention of Babylonian origin for Hermes or the caduceus.^[3]

- Iris was Goddess of the Rainbow (bridge bet. Earth & sky) messenger & attendant to Hera queen of the gods, (fem. counterpart of Hermes) beloved by gods & mortals alike for her kind & loving nature. In one version of the myth it is Iris, rather Aphrodite, who gives birth to Eros.

- Iris/Arwen is connected w/ the feeling function, as distinguished from what we call emotion, which is usually a visceral reaction to a situation, while feeling is an active, intelligent faculty of choice.

- Arwen wields the sword Hadafang, w/ the curved Elvish blade that is used in the service of the goddess to cut through emotional confusion & differentiate feelings. (see Picasa image)

- The faculty of feeling is a constantly changing bridge bet. the opposites that senses the needs of a particular situation with the goal of cooperation, harmony & relationship always in mind. She rep. the flow of feeling bet. masc./fem, conscious/unconscious which must constantly renew itself according to the requirements of each moment.

- Arwen professes on several occasions, to Aragorn & Elrond, that she is choosing a mortal life. Her challenge comes when she succumbs to her father Elrond’s fear & despair & reluctantly decides to leave for the Undying Lands, where she will remain eternally in her father’s house, ever the dutiful daughter never to attain her rightful queenship. However, on the way to the ships she has a vision of her boy child. This ignites the possibility of hope for the new life that could still come forth from the apparent desolation of the moment, & she turns away from immortality. Here she personifies the balanced heart of the mature Feminine, no longer bound by service to the father she claims her own creative potentcy to be the vehicle for Life, to be reborn as a product of the union of the opposites. It is she who sees to the reforging of Narsil the broken blade, healing the wound that has severed the relat. bet. Phallos & the Divine Fem.

  (see ROTK P.1 Sc. 9 0:37:00 Arwen/Eldarion)

- the Eldar are the original divine beings. people of the Stars, the child Eldarion is the child of the star people meaning the representation of what is possible in the psyche of the man who has committed himself to the inner marriage.

- the archetype of the Child symbolizes the product of the Conjunctio. Dreaming of a child indicates some great spiritual change is about to take place. Arwen’s vision bears this promise for the world.

 

 GALADRIEL See Picasa Galadriel

- radiantly garlanded Lady of Light: lives in Lothlorien – flowery garden dreamplace @ Caras Galadhon center of Elevendom on earth.

– Galadriel is the bearer of the Ring Nenya 6 pt. star. Ring of adamant or white stone, a diamond believed to be impenetrable & unbreakable. It bestows on the wearer firmness in purpose & opinion.

  (see Powerpoint. Nenya #38,39,40 )

- Nenya, Ring of water, blood of Life ) holds the knowledge of the structure of the source of Life in the Universe

– Well –well of remembrance, knowledge of the beginnings & origins of things & of what MIGHT come to pass.

of Light sent from the Pleroma – intelligenc- I equate Galadriel w/ Sophia as in John Lash’s interpretation – Sophia is the gnostic name for the ray e & spirit of earth before it is transformed into Gaia the biosphere.

- Galadriel/Sophia is the consciousness of Gaia, Divine planetary World Soul (Anima Mundi). She is the origin of the intelligence of Earth manifesting as Nature. An expression of a Divine energy of Light that pre-existed the creation of earth.

 - Gaia-Sophia Principle assumes that natural processes produced the human species & endowed it with capacity to know itself & understand its place in the Cosmos.

- Sophia & Christos (one of the other Aeons beings of Light) together are responsible for bringing forth the Anthropos – human. Galadriel & Celeborn are the representations of S&C.

- Galadriel is the mother of Celebrian, Arwen’s mother, so Galadriel is Arwen’s grandmother or Great Mother.

- Galadriel’s test w/ the One Ring depicts the nature of the Shadow w/in the Fem principle

- See FOTR P.2 Sc. 39/12

- Dark Galad. I will make you love me or else, I will turn my attention ie. Life Force away from you. In the Greek myth, Mother goddess Demeter who presided over grain, harvest, fertility refused to allow anything to grow – withholding love & life

- In relation to Frodo she is his encounter w/ the Anima the inner fem. guide to a man’s soul, this inner relationship give meaning to a man’s life as seen w/ Arw & Arag Here Galadriel plays the role of the unflinching Goddess of Fate “to be a Ring Bearer is to Be alone.” “this task was appointed you Frodo…

- Galadriel’s boat is in the shape of a Swan – white Swan was sacred to Venus due to its erotic quality, but on a deeper level relates to the union of masc./fem - the long phallic neck & the rounded silken body. The curved neck connects the swan w/ the harp & the sacrificial serpent, those along w/ the ship of death are symbols of the mystic journey to the other world or death. It has been suggested that the Horse pulled the Sun Chariot during the day & the Swan hauled his bark over the waters by night.

- In this capacity Galadriel is a psychopomp – escort & guide of souls thru the passageways of psycho-spiritual transformation or physical death.

 

  (see FOTR P.2 Sc. 41/14 1:02:10 Galad. gifts

- Her gift to Frodo is the alembic with the elixir – “the Light Elendil our most sacred gift to use when all other lights go out.” (see Powerpoint #49… - 59) Elixir of Life & Immortality

- When does he use it? During the encounter w/ Shelob the Spider ( w/ its ceaseless weaving, killing, building & destroying that ceaseless alternating forces on which the universe depends & characterizes the continual transmutation that marks the course of a human life) in the Tunnel – birth canal – his initiatory death rebirth experience that prepares him for meeting his own physical death in a conscious way at he end of the story.

- Galadriel’s message is that we as human beings have the potential for complete illumination from within ourselves.

- Illumination means to become responsible for our own potential as creative beings & to develop that potential using the tool s of imagination.

- imagination is a dimension of experience that moves & connects inner life to outer life. Conscious engagement with imagination illuminates our potential.

- the Self is not found, it is created, just as the future cannot be foretold it too must be created. That is why we have the opportunity now to create the future we want by taking back the power of imagination.

- we come equipped with the capacity to imagine & therefore create a different world but that ability can be easily usurped by the implanting of images from outside ourselves, that we then respond to as if they were our own meaningful images.

- word, language, sound, image can alter consciousness if we are unaware. & we are assaulted thru media & marketing w/ symbols & images designed to manipulate & enslave us.

- Illumination, seeing the Light, attaining enlightenment really means is to take back the terrain of our own imagination then the Ring of Power no longer has a hold on us.

Now we’re going to delve a bit deeper into the subject of Light.

- Deepak Chopra, “Photons come out of nowhere, they cannot be stored, they can barely be pinned down in time, they have no home in space whatsoever. That is, light occupies no volume & has no mass. The similarity between a thought & a photon is very deep. Both are born in a region beyond space & time where nature controls all processes in that void which is full of creative intelligence.”

- “universe is more like a great thought than a great machine”

- in early 1980’s a team of scientists demonstrated that the cells of all living beings emit light, called bio-photons, at a rate of 100 units per sec. & per sq. cm of surface area. They also showed DNA was the source of this emission. Jeremy Narbury

- even at absolute zero energy is being exchanged at the sub-atomic level, matter is comprises of energy & information & it never comes to rest.

- Jesus, “The Light of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye be single your whole body shall be full of Light”

Pineal gland (see Powerpoint #48)

The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, epiphysis cerebri, epiphysis or the "third eye") is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and photoperiodic (seasonal) functions.^[1][2] It is shaped like a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and is located near to the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join. Unlike much of the rest of the brain, the pineal gland is not isolated from the body by the blood-brain barrier system.^[3]

The pineal gland is reddish-gray and about the size of a pea (8 mm in humans), located just rostro-dorsal to the superior colliculus and behind and beneath the stria medullaris, between the laterally positioned thalamic bodies. It is part of the epithalamus.

The pineal gland is a midline structure, and is often seen in plain skull X-rays, as it is often calcified. Calcification is typically due to intake of the fluoride found in water and toothpaste.

- Pinealocytes in many non-mammalian vertebrates have a strong resemblance to the photoreceptor cells of the eye. Some evolutionary biologists believe that the vertebrate pineal cells share a common evolutionary ancestor with retinal cells.^[7 we see on the inside, the universe is frozen light, brain creates reality on the inside.

The compound pinoline is also produced in the pineal gland; it is one of the beta-carbolines. the β-carbolines harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine play a pivotal role in the pharmacology of the psychedelic brew ayahuasca. Some β-carbolines, notably tryptoline and pinoline, are formed naturally in the human body. The latter is implicated along with melatonin in the role of the pineal gland in regulating the sleep-wake cycle.^{[citation needed]} The β-carboline can link to cerebral benzodiazepine receptors and induce inverse agonist effect.

-

- master controller of hormones, enzymes, immune function, oxidation, carbohydrate metabolism & cyclic patterns of sleep & wakefulness, governs stress levels & antioxidant production for control of harmful free oxidative radicals

-

  Picasa Pine cone images (see Videos - Strassman et al)

- a magnetic organ containing magnetite crystals the brain & heart are affected by geo-magnetic activity stirred up by solar flares. We are entering a solar maximum period of intense solar flare activity peaking in 2012.

 

- Heart & brain are affected by geo-magnetic activity stirred by solar flares

- matter is comprised of energy & information, matter is frozen Light

- All living things emit tiny particles of light =bio-photons

- Even at absolute zero energy is being exchanged at the sub-atomic level, matter never comes to rest

- Every thought creates a sensation in the body