tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post5986883865382253212..comments2024-02-19T07:06:52.139-05:00Comments on Twilight Language: Slumdog & Other Dumas GatesLoren Colemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10705306131201565523noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-32433041406474255752010-10-14T08:15:34.462-04:002010-10-14T08:15:34.462-04:00I will know, many thanks for an explanation.I will know, many thanks for an explanation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-39008650262149631982009-04-04T23:13:00.000-04:002009-04-04T23:13:00.000-04:00There is another interesting literary connection r...There is another interesting literary connection regarding threes: Macbeth. Setting aside the three witches, Banquo is murdered by three assassins (unworthy or not, who knows) in the Third scene of the Third Act of the play. The identity of two of the assassins is, I believe, revealed; the third, however, never is. Based on certain textual clues, some have speculated that it is Macbeth himself who is the third assassin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-83579020138956668282009-03-25T13:40:00.000-04:002009-03-25T13:40:00.000-04:00I don't have anything on the Musketeers.Masonry li...I don't have anything on the Musketeers.Masonry link, but see also <A HREF="http://www.philipcoppens.com/ninthgate.html" REL="nofollow">Philip Coppens' piece</A> on the Ninth gate and Dumas.<BR/><BR/>The Three Musketeers is in the general "<A HREF="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/3musk/section14.rhtml" REL="nofollow">Romance</A>" tradition - like the Grail stories but the main symbolism seems to be from the threes. After all there are <A HREF="http://www.shmoop.com/literary-device/literature/alexandre-dumas/the-three-musketeers/what-s-up-with-the-title.html" REL="nofollow">four Musketeers</A>. Three is big with Masons - from <A HREF="http://mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/Essays/symbols-and-use.html" REL="nofollow">alt.freemasonry</A>:<BR/><BR/><I>And non-Masons can shed light on our symbolism. A fascinating study by Katharine Thomson, called The Masonic Thread in Mozart, tells us that "the number three has a special significance in Freemasonry. Most of the songs are in three-part harmony.... Many songs are in triple time; threefold repetitions are frequent, and major triads are of particular importance.... In Mozart's music certain keys are specifically associated with Freemasonry, notably Eb major ... [with] the key signature of three flats."</I><BR/><BR/>There is a powerful resonance in trinities.<BR/><BR/>The Christian Trinity - it is interesting to note this was enshrined in doctrine at the First Council of Nicaea, which also added layers of mysticism drawn from other regional religions like Mithrasism and Zoroastrianism (and wide-ranging myths about the dying and resurrecting god - Jesus as Sun God). It isn't clear to me where the idea of the Trinity comes from but with a Trinity in place, along with the BVM and tiers of saints, you have effectively created a pantheon which can be syncretically assimilate other earlier beliefs. Also I saw this on the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity#Scriptural_texts_cited_as_implying_support" REL="nofollow">Trinity</A> Wikipedia article: "The same Gospel suggests the equality and unity of Father and Son. But it also suggests a hierarchy ("The Father is greater than I"), a statement appealed to by Marcionism, Valentinianism, Arianism and others who denied the Trinity." So this concepts also leaves the door open for the incorporation of Gnostic ideas.<BR/><BR/>You have the same idea cropping up in <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti" REL="nofollow">Trimurti</A>, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and may be an ancient concept.<BR/><BR/>Also worth noting that DC Comics call Superman. Batman and Wonder Woman their Trinity and each having aspects of the hero.<BR/><BR/>There is also <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(The_Matrix)#Derivation_of_name" REL="nofollow">Trinity</A> in the Matrix who brings Neo back to life.<BR/><BR/>We shouldn't forget the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)" REL="nofollow">Trinity nuclear test area</A>, apparently named from a suggestion by Oppenheimer based on the poem:<BR/><BR/><I>As West and East<BR/>In all flatt Maps—and I am one—are one,<BR/>So death doth touch the Resurrection</I><BR/><BR/>It was after witnessing the first explosion there that Oppenheimer said "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - he had learned Sanskrit and read the original version of the Bhagavad Gita from which it came. It is said by Vishnu.<BR/><BR/>Is not the blue child (pictured above), they randomly bump into (jarringly consider the events at the time), Vishnu? That is certainly what I thought at the time and a look around suggests it is (I'd love to see what they say on the DVD commentary about this and other elements that seem to be parachuted in).<BR/><BR/>An examination of the fleur-de-lis could also come up trumps, it also <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis#Symbolism_in_religion_and_art" REL="nofollow">leads back</A> to the BVM and the Trinity (interestingly with roots in 14th Century France). There may also be Gnostic and Rosicrucian <A HREF="http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/rrm/rrm12.htm" REL="nofollow">overtones</A> to it, and a deeper occult symbolism. It crops up <A HREF="http://www.wikicompany.org/wiki/911:Occult_symbolism_XI#Fleur-de-lis" REL="nofollow">all over the place</A>, like being linked with the <A HREF="http://trickytimetimes.blogspot.com/2006/08/canadian-maple-leaf-stylized-fleur-de.html" REL="nofollow">Merovingian bee</A>, <A HREF="http://troyspace2.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/the-baphomet-of-mendes-the-fleur-de-lis/" REL="nofollow">the Baphomet of Mendes</A> and in <A HREF="http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v11/v11p121_Grimstad.html" REL="nofollow">neo-Templars</A> imagery (see also the earlier link for other Nazi symbolims):<BR/><BR/>"<I>Lanz was disinterested in Listian oracular recreations of the German past, but he did have his own candidate for an ancient Aryan secret priesthood that supposedly had survivors in the modern era: the Knights Templar, a Catholic order suppressed for heresy in the 1300s. He founded his Ordo Novi Templi (Order of the New Temple) around 1907 in the medieval castle of Burg Werfenstein, which perched dramatically above the Danube with a swastika and fleur-de-lis flag over its tower. </I>"<BR/><BR/>And that is just a bit of brainstorming - I'm sure there is more in there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-44202629959794195882009-03-22T23:02:00.000-04:002009-03-22T23:02:00.000-04:00An excellent essay, what synthesis. I would like t...An excellent essay, what synthesis. I would like to know more about the Masonic three's? I thought the Jesuits were the Pope's henchmen? I have surmized that the freemasons have been at war with the ROMAN catholic church since or before De Molay. What does the THREE musketmen have in common with the Masons? All for one, one for all? What else? I am in solidarity with Mr Rushdies take on Slum Dog. Man o man I truly love essays like yours. I learn so very much, so many blanks filled in/connections made. Please keep shining forth. Dennis from Oregon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-82410362344183207452009-03-22T22:24:00.000-04:002009-03-22T22:24:00.000-04:00Slumdog is an excellent film and deserves all the ...Slumdog is an excellent film and deserves all the awards it won but it certainly struck me as odd. For starters the trailers give no clue to the widespread brutality: murders, torture, crime by and on children. If it wasn't so well done it could have been quite a haul.<BR/><BR/>I couldn't pin it down to anything specific but the whole thing struck me as something like a cross between a mythic Hero's Journey and some cultic initiation ceremony. There seem to be specific stages or trials to progress through life and the quiz. In fact for him to get the big reward he is hooded and led off for a further ordeal which he has to pass to win the million.<BR/><BR/>There is also a tangential Joker link - they fall into the grasp of a Fagin-style character who is a cripple-maker, like the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprachicos" REL="nofollow">comprachicos</A> from The Man Who Laughs. Who I mentioned here before in connection to dwarves and jesters.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9409160.post-19460525612521245602009-03-22T19:14:00.000-04:002009-03-22T19:14:00.000-04:00A thought provoking post. "Who is the third Musket...A thought provoking post. "Who is the third Musketeer (rifleman)?" Reminds me of the JFK assassination and the confusion about who and how many killers.<BR/><BR/>Aramis became the "black pope", and I am curious what that might mean to a high ranking Freemason. Who is the (real) black pope?<BR/><BR/>Who is the third Mousketeer?<BR/><BR/>Cheers, MichaelMichaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531037998720855468noreply@blogger.com