Making Aurora Great Again

         "The fire rises!" ~ Bane, The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

Aurora, Colorado has a long recent history with twilight language. Why should we expect 2024 to be any different?

Remember July 20, 2012? I forecast something was going to happen on that date in conjunction with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. It did.

A mass shooting occurred on July 20, 2012, at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, leaving 12 dead and 58 injured (some gravely), 15 minutes after the film began. The active shooting took place in Theater No. 9 at the Century 16 Movie Theaters, located at 14300 East Alameda Avenue in Aurora, Colorado. (News reports have said as high as 15 are dead, but as of 8:00 AM Eastern, CNN is reporting 12 have been killed. Double-counting caused the 15 count.)

In my first blog posting about the shooting, I wrote:

The name Aurora means "dawn." The Roman goddess of the dawn was named Aurora, and her siblings are Sol (Sun) and Luna (Moon). These names in Latin and Greek are  Aurora/Eos, Sol/Helios, Luna/Selene.

Anne Hathaway/Catwoman's public persona character in The Dark Knight Rises is named Selene Kyle (Selene = Moon, Kyle = Strait of Water/River).

Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver. Aurora originated in the 1880s as the town of Fletcher, taking its name from Denver businessman Donald Fletcher, who saw it as a real estate opportunity. He and his partners staked out four square miles east of Denver, but the town - and Colorado - struggled mightily after the Silver Crash of 1893. At that point Fletcher skipped town, leaving the community with a huge water debt. Inhabitants decided to rename the town Aurora in 1907, after one of the subdivisions composing the town.

Colorado is of Spanish origin, meaning "colored red" and "ruddy."

The memories of Columbine (20 miles away from Aurora) are being recalled by the Colorado and other media.

The Aurora name is familiar to investigators of the unexplained due to the the Aurora, Texas, Airship incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town in the northwest corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) allegedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local Aurora cemetery.

(Various "Aurora," "Copycat Jokers," and "Red Dawn" postings followed discussing all the issues and events in the wake of the shootings and more. Here, here, here, and others throughout the blog.

In 2019, Aurora, Illinois was touched.

On the evening of October 11, 2024, former President Donald Trump brought Aurora, Colorado, back into the news in the same time period as the aurora borealis (the northern lights) display was visible in the northern and southern hemispheres. (Credit for noting this news to Enki King.)

 

"Anyone who has studied twilight language probably got chills upon hearing of Trump's Operation Aurora. The announcement may signal an upcoming Red Dawn event, and I would not be surprised to see more attempts at political assassinations." ~ Enki A. King, X, October 15, 2024,

Halloween's Tokyo Joker Attack

A man, 24, dressed as Batman's Joker, attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, October 31, 2021, injuring 17, as many party-goers headed into the city center for Halloween. The suspected attacker was arrested on the spot.

According to Reuters, the attacker had spread fluid around the train and started a fire.

A video on Twitter showed a bespectacled man dressed in a purple suit and bright green shirt, as worn by the Joker, seated in an empty train puffing on a cigarette, his legs crossed and looking calm. He can be seen through the window being surrounded by law enforcement in a subsequent clip.

Origins

As David Charles Plate observes, "Alan Moore's The Killing Joke was the first instance of The Dark Knight rendition of Batman along with The Man Who Laughs rendition of The Joker. The Thelema connections are numerous."

It is apparent that the alleged attacker's outfit was copycatted from Heath Ledger's Joker in the "Dark Knight" costuming (which, of course, has a long history before modern cinema). However, the Tokyo individual's costume was a bit off; he was wearing a green shirt, different tie, and a purple vest, as opposed to Ledger's outfit.

The attack occurred on the Keio express line bound for Shinjuku, the world's busiest rail station, at around 8 p.m. (1100 GMT).

Phantom Clowns and Jokers

In March of 1982, in Fate magazine, and then in 1983, in my book Mysterious America, I first used the term "Phantom Clowns" to talk of May 1981's Boston, Massachusetts accounts of individuals wearing multicolored clothes who reportedly were trying to entice school children into coming along with them. The eyewitness accounts of clowns in vans bothering children were discussed for the first time comprehensively in a work of Fortean wonders.

The ultimate modern "Killer Clown" was the Joker, which evolved into the killer Dark Knight, appearing in full form at Aurora on July 20, 2012 (see here at "red dawn," with many links therein).

The copycat effect continues....

On October 27, 2021, a Joker character with a knife ~ in Boise, Idaho, was seen but no suspect was apprehended. That would case be a classic Phantom Clown sighting (as per my Fortean clown classification system). The Japanese incident on Halloween 2021 is a physical manifestation of the Killer Clown.

Family Trees

Created in 1998 by artist Jeffrey Vallance.

Phantom Clowns, Killer Clowns, Jokers, and Dark Knights issue forth from the same, sometimes deadly, "Trickster"/"Clown" tree. 

Created in 2008 by artist Jeffrey Vallance.

With the change of season, we may see the appearance of members of the "Wildman"/"Santa Claus" family tree, as captured above a decade after Vallance's "Trickster" family tree.

See also here, here, and here.

h/t AProdigiosus, Chris Farnsworth, Tim Binnall, Jeffrey Vallance

#Cryptokubrology, #Batman, #Joker.

Footnote: My wife, Jenny appeared to be picking up on this Joker energy on Halloween, and said several things about Batman throughout Sunday. Humm...

Red Dawn 2020?

Promotionally entitled, "McDonald's Drive Through," this movie lobby card produced for the 1984 release of the Patrick Swayze film, held an iconic image.

Red Dawn is a 1984 American war film directed by John Milius, with a screenplay by Kevin Reynolds and Milius. It stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith, and Powers Boothe. Red Dawn was released on August 10, 1984.

The vanishing of the actors in Red Dawn has been rather whole scale. Patrick Swayze, 57, died September 14, 2009. CBS and Warner Bros. terminated the then-46-year-old Charlie Sheen's contract on March 7, 2011. Ben Johnson, 77, died on April 8, 1996. Harry Dean Stanton, 91, died on September 15, 2017. Ron O'Neal, 66, died on January 14, 2004. Powers Boothe, 68, died May 14, 2017.

On November 16, 2012, Enki King wrote in the comments here that "[he] looked at the stars of the Dawn films and their symbolic alchemical significance. Kristen Stewart was albedo-resonating Snow White and Bella Swan; and Chris Hemsworth, who stars in the 2012 Red Dawn, co-starred with Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. Hemsworth also starred in Thor, and toward the beginning of that film, when Thor falls from the sky (Skyfall), scientist Erik Selvig exclaims, 'I thought you said it was a subtle aurora!'"

On November 21, 2012, the wide release of Red Dawn (directed by Dan Bradley and starring Chris Hemsworth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) occurred.

Within the world of the Twilight Language, another "Red Dawn" appeared in 2012. "Colorado Aurora," literally translated as "red dawn." I have mentioned before the meanings of Colorado (= red) and Aurora (= dawn). See the many links here.

On July 20, 2012, Aurora was the site of the third largest mass shooting in terms of number of casualties in United States history at the time, now the eighteenth largest, and the second-deadliest shooting in Colorado after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The shooting occurred just after midnight, when James Eagan Holmes opened fire during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in a Century movie theater, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.

What are we to make of the Soviets at a McDonald's in 1984 through the lense of 2020? It appears to seem troubling and prophetic, all at the same time. This appears especially true when in 2019, both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald Trump are still talking about the Russians.

Will 2020 usher in another "red dawn" event? Perchance, not at a McDonald's, but at a Waffle House?

Red Dawn at Waffle House.

“A red sun rises. Blood has been spilled this night.” 

...

"It is a red dawn. Strange things await us by the eaves of the forest. 

Good or evil, I do not know; but we are called. Awake!" 

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers, 1954

"Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. 

Fell deeds awake. 

Now for wrath, now for ruin, and the red dawn. 

Forth, Eorlingas!" 

~ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 2002

Selina Kyle: There's a storm coming. 

Bruce Wayne: You sound like you're looking forward to it. 

Selina Kyle: I'm adaptable. 

~ The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

"The Aurora, Colorado shooting appears to be a 'red dawn,' a milestone awakening event of which we can only guess what it might really mean in the near and distant future."

Loren Coleman, Twilight Language, July 22, 2012

"'Red dawn event,' a milestone manifestation of unfathomable future dimensions."

Loren Coleman, Twilight Language, July 24, 2012

Joker Violence Predicted: 10-4

The Kubrick stare is back. 

Cryptokubrology is revealed.

But for now, let us be forewarned.

The prediction of violent incidents associated with movies like Joker has been achieved. It is reality, not fantasy.

I did it in 2012. I foresaw the violence directly linked to The Dark Knight Rises, opening on July 20, 2012. Down to the date. 

The day before, I wrote:

Will any events take place on July 20, 2012, of any import?

Dates of movie releases have had strange links.

The day of neo-Nazi Breivik's massacre in Norway (July 22, 2011) was the day of the release of the film Captain America (July 22, 2011), with the first scene taking place in Norway, to the sound of Nazis' rapid fire machine gunning. A bizarre coincidence, to say the least.

...What will happen on July 20, 2012?

The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July or as 22/7, were two sequential lone wolf domestic terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League summer camp, in which 77 people (mostly youth) were killed, and 319 injured.

The past is a good predictor of the future.

My ability to do what I do, based on human behavior even caused Dangerous Minds to write the article on September 17, 2012 entitled: "The Copycat Effect: Meet the Man Who Predicted the Aurora Shooting."

As the Dangerous Minds author Thomas McGrath would note, "Coleman had previously written of Nolan’s films, having predicted and then documented the emergence of copycats inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight. James Holmes, of course, would shed his gas mask, body armor, and fatigues to reveal that beneath his distinctly Bain-reminiscent exterior, he was himself a self-proclaimed Joker copycat."

(See also my other behavioral predictions.)

But 2012 is not 2019, and today, an odd bit of revisionist history is setting in. Seven years later, the media is trying to forget the reality of the copycat effect.

In the days following the massacre, Holmes was compared to the Joker character because he sported bright dyed hair and, according to a now-debunked report at the time, called himself "the Joker" as he was being arrested. [Daniel] Oates, [Aurora’s chief of police at the time,] maintains "there is no evidence" Holmes ever said that.” ~ as noted in "Aurora Shooting Victims Voice Fears Over 'Joker' in Letter to Warner Bros.

On July 20, 2012, I wrote "Eyewitnesses reported the assailant appeared to be wearing a gas mask, body armor, similar to how the film's villain Bane did too. Witnesses say the suspect was dressed all in black, with a riot helmet, goggles, and a gas mask."

 

And, "Police reported during the afternoon that Holmes did not look like Bane, after all. He first identified himself as "I am the Joker," and had his head and goatee hair painted red and did, somewhat, resemble (perhaps? under his body armor?) the Joker during attack."

James Eagan Holmes, mugshot, immediately after the Aurora arrest. Taken July 20, 2012.

James Holmes, 2012.

Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and James Holmes (2012).

Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), Heath Ledger

Many of us have warned of the potential for theater attacks in the wake of the opening of Joker (Phillips, 2019). Now media reports talk of the U.S. Military issuing warnings to troops about incel violence at Joker screenings (see here and here).

I am not certain it will happen on the opening day in 2019, because, literally, I feel people are getting the message (10-4). The weekend through October 5th and 6th could be especially dangerous.

Finally, that the awareness that the Incel Effect has significance in certain mass shootings is a hopeful preventive sign. For more insights, see: "Into The Valley of Virgin Violence: The Incel Effect." See more on the Incel Effect here and here.

Since the beginning of 2019, I have been warning readers that Joker was going to make a large violent impact. Now next week, the date will be upon us.

The date the movie opens in America is October 4. Or in police code, stated as 10-4.

10-4 is one of the so-called ten-codes, or radio signals, invented by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International. The ten-codes are credited to Illinois State Police Communications Director Charles Hopper who created them between 1937–40 for use in radio communications among cops.  

10-4 is an affirmative signal: it means quite literally “OK.” It translates, "I understand your transmission."

State Rep. Tom Sullivan (D-Aurora) shows his tattoo that memorializes his late son, Alex, one of the Aurora movie theater shooting victims.

Daniel Oates, Aurora's chief of police at the time, who retired in June after nearly 39 years in law enforcement, says he believes the timing of Joker is poor, noting three mass shootings in the past three months: at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California, where three people were killed on July 28; the massacre in El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed on Aug. 3; and then the following day the shootings in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed.

Aurora, Colorado is not screening the new Joker.

Landmark Theaters has prohibited moviegoers from wearing Joker costumes during its run, and the Los Angeles Police Department will increase police visibility at area theaters, though it has "not received any specific threat."

The military's interventions have been active.

This email was circulated by the military:

Team,

Posts on social media have made reference to involuntary celibate (“incel”) extremists replicating the 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, at screenings of the Joker movie at nationwide theaters. This presents a potential risk to DOD personnel and family members, though there are no known specific credible threats to the opening of the Joker on 4 October.

Incels are individuals who express frustration from perceived disadvantages to starting intimate relationships. Incel extremists idolize violent individuals like the Aurora movie theater shooter. They also idolize the Joker character, the violent clown from the Batman series, admiring his depiction as a man who must pretend to be happy, but eventually fights back against his bullies.

When entering theaters, identify two escape routes, remain aware of your surroundings, and remember the phrase “run, hide, fight.” Run if you can. If you’re stuck, hide (also referred to as “sheltering in place”), and stay quiet. If a shooter finds you, fight with whatever you can.

** this is a condensed version of an HQ Army Materiel Command, G-3, Protection Division Security message **

This memo was also circulated:

Philip K. Dick foresaw the year 2054 in his 1956 scifi short story, "The Minority Report."

We have not exactly come to the age of "precrime," where specialized police departments apprehend criminals based on the foreknowledge provided by psychics called "precogs." But the use of behavioral analysts and the information foretelling threats of violent behavior is leading to the arrest of people with criminal intent and prevention of crimes.

We should observe closely, which way will it go over the weekend of October 4-6, 2019. Be alert.

+++

On September 29, 2019, I posted on Twitter the following "footnote" about the release of Joker in India.