The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).
It was the "coincidence of the day," the spontaneous press conference on Air Force One, when President Donald Trump stuck his head in to talk to reporters about Syria, 4/6/2017.
Star Wars Rogue One was on, and Darth Vadar was on the screen. See the media and their "symbolism" thoughts concerning all the press photographs of Trump with Darth Vadar.
But commentators missed one bigger sync in the shoot. A time on the clock that also "feels" very symbolic: 2:11 = 2/11. It is almost as spooky as watching the Joe Alexander's doc on how often 9/11 shows up in the Back to the Future films.
The media and Twitter went wild with the visual juxtaposition.
2:11 ~ President Trump & Darth Vadar together.
"211" is police code for "robbery in progress."
Later, on April 6, 2017, Trump ordered at least 50 missiles be fired at a Syrian airbase. Russians were on the ground there.
The strike occurred local time April 7, 2017. That coincidentally happens to be the anniversary date in 1946 when Syria received its independence from France.
It also is the anniversary of the USA capturing Baghdad - April 7, 2003.
One hundred years ago, on April 6, 1917, the USA entered World War One.
A Russian military plane carrying 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, killing everyone on board, Russian authorities said. Speculation that it might be terrorist related is making the rounds.
Here they are performing Skyfall - Adele's song in the James Bond film of the same name:
The Russian Defence Ministry said one of its TU-154 Tupolev planes had disappeared from radar screens at 0525 MSK (9.25 p.m. ET), two minutes after taking off from Sochi in southern Russia, where it had stopped to refuel from Moscow, on its way to Syria.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman, told reporters that nobody had survived.
"The area of the crash site has been established. No survivors have been spotted," he said. An unnamed ministry source told Russian news agencies no life rafts had been found, while another source told the Interfax agency that the plane had not sent an SOS signal.
In televised comments, President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, declared Dec. 26 a national day of mourning.
The jet, a Soviet-era Tupolev plane built in 1983, had been carrying 84 passengers and eight crew members.
It has been iconically pointed out that videos show them singing Sweet Home Alabama -- since almost the entire Lynyrd Skinyrd band also died in a plane accident.
This is the end Hold your breath and count to ten Feel the earth move and then Hear my heart burst again
For this is the end I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment So overdue I owe them Swept away, I’m stolen
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall At skyfall
Skyfall is where we start A thousand miles and poles apart Where worlds collide and days are dark You may have my number, you can take my name But you’ll never have my heart
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall
Where you go I go What you see I see I know I’d never be me Without the security Of your loving arms Keeping me from harm Put your hand in my hand And we’ll stand
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall
If it bleeds, it leads. That's an old piece of newspaper insider advice, and it has been transmitted to those in radio, television, video, Internet, cable news, and reality programming, too. Basically, the theory goes, the use of violence or the threat of violence helps news organizations sell their shows, soap, and SUVs. Dan Rather said it once, quite clearly, at a speech he gave at the National Press Club in the mid-1980s: the news is all about “death.” ~ Chapter 2: "Death Sells," The Copycat Effect, 2004
The media has a way of copycatting "death" trends. Are we in the midst of a dead-child one? Is this a ripple that one critic has called "dead-child porn"?
For example, this Labor Day, news has many details about a toddler's body parts being found in a pond in Garfield Park, Chicago.
A Toddler's Foot
First a foot was found on Saturday, September 5, 2015, at about 4:40 p.m. in the lagoon off the 200 block of McCrea Drive in Garfield Park. Then another foot and two arms were discovered in the water. Chicago police late on Sunday, September 6, 2015, found a child's head near where the other body parts were discovered in Garfield Park Lagoon the previous afternoon.
The Wikipedia photo of Garfield Park (above) compared to the newspaper photograph of police looking for body parts over the weekend.
The child's second foot, and both hands were found toward the north end of the lagoon about 25 yards away from the first location. A 20-pound weight was found nearby, but then a lot of old machine parts, motors and junk was too. The limbs were in an advanced state of decomposition and not clothed, authorities said. The gender is as yet unknown.
The portion of the park near the northwest corner of the lagoon, along Hamlin Boulevard between Lake and Washington, was closed. The lagoon is all linked, so the initial probable dumping location of the body is unknown.
Perry Starks, a member of the Garfield Park Advisory Council, said bodies have been found in the park over the years, but this discovery is particularly sad, noted the Chicago Tribune. (Please note that. Other bodies have been found, but the fact this was a toddler's makes this "particularly sad.")
In 1869, the Illinois state legislature established the West Park Commission, which was responsible for three large parks and interlinking boulevards in Chicago. The centerpiece of the system, the 185-acre Central Park, was renamed to honor President James A. Garfield (1831- 1881) after his assassination in 1881.
The Wicked Woods
Of course, it goes without saying, this crime scene for this little toddler was in the woods, with more trees all around.
The map of Garfield Park shows that one street coming in from the East is named West Maypole Avenue.
As the movie The Wicker Man reveals - in its revelation of the method mode - that child sacrifice and the Maypole celebrations in the Spring are intermingled. Was this child's death more than what first comes to mind - which is an unfortunate child abuse killing - but instead is it evidence of a toddler's sacrifice?
Maypole = a pole painted and decorated with flowers, around which people traditionally dance on May Day, holding long ribbons that are attached to the top of the pole.
The reports say the first body part was found in the lagoon in the 200 block of McCrea Drive in Garfield Park.
McCrea = The Gaelic form of the surname McCrea is Mac Rath, which literally means "son of grace" or "son of prosperity."
The Chicago toddler story came in the wake of the story and photograph of a three-year-old boy's drowning.
The Kurdi Story
That event unfolded this way. In the early hours of September 2, 2015, Alan (incorrectly given as "Aylan" at first) Kurdi and his refugee Syrian family were in a small plastic or rubber inflatable boat, which is said to have capsized about five minutes after leaving a beach resort at Bodrum in Turkey. A total of 16 people were in the boat, which is designed for a maximum of 8 people. They were trying to reach the Greek island of Kos, a roughly 30 minute (or 2.5 mile) ride by boat from Bodrum. It is believed that none of the people in the boat wore lifejackets.
The bodies of Kurdi, his five-year-old brother and others were discovered by two employees of the beach resort at around 6:30 am on the same morning. Describing his encounter with Kurdi and another young girl, one of the employees stated, "I ran towards it and saw them. I was so afraid. He helped me pull them out of the water. They looked still alive, like they were sleeping, smiling a little. Their faces and arms and legs looked so new still. They couldn’t have been in the water an hour."
The publishing of the photograph of Alan Kurdi's lifeless body on a Turkey beach went viral. I won't publish the photograph here, for a variety of reasons. But you've probably already seen it. Instead, I'll pass along some political cartoons that try to capture the emotions that people felt when seeing that photograph of Alan Kurdi.
Where does this fit in this modern world of "media"?
Brendan O'Neill wrote in The Spectator on September 3, 2015 that: "The global spreading of this snapshot — which appears on the front page of the Independent today and inside the Guardian, and is even callously being turned into a meme by sections of the weeping Twitterati — is justified as a way of raising awareness about the migrant crisis. Please. It’s more like a snuff photo for progressives, dead-child porn, designed not to start a serious debate about migration in the 21st century but to elicit a self-satisfied feeling of sadness among Western observers."
What we are being asked is to take these stories and images, syncing around the world, and put feelings upon them.
This Week
Considering the 2nd-week anniversary of themedia-involvedBridgewater Plaza shootings and the 14th-year-anniversary of 9/11 are this week, what should we expect to occur in the next few days?
I wrote in 2011, about the specific incident copycats of 9/11 here. But what are the trends telling us about now? More Batman syncs? Another live media death? Or, are the two stories above an indication that we will see andhear about more horrific child deaths? I'm sure that law enforcement agencies will be on high alert.
One thing is for certain, if it bleeds, it will lead.
Why do a few multiple news items appear to play name game tricks of their own?
On Saturday, May 18, 2013, a powerful car explosion hit the Ruken al-Deen neighborhood in Damascus, killing at least three people in the latest blast to strike the Syrian capital (population 1.7 million). The SANA news agency reported that an explosive device was planted under a car parked on Rukneddin highway near Ibn al-Nafis Hospital in Damascus, Syria. The initial death toll was put at three, and the number of injured at five.
Also on Saturday, May 18th, around 2:10 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival in Damascus, Viriginia, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail, was interrupted by tragedy.
Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/05/19/3494077/medical-emergency-eyed-in-va-parade.html#storylink=cpy
An elderly driver in a 1997 Cadillac plowed into the parade, injuring at least 60 people, sending a dozen to the hospital.
"In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn't happen again," Damacus Mayor Jack McCrady said.
Damascus is a small town of less than 1000 people in Washington County, Virginia, United States. Damascus is the home of the annual Trail Days festival (with reportedly 20,000 people visiting). The community is known as Trail Town USA due to the convergence of four scenic trails in the town, including the Appalachian Trail, U.S. Bicycle Route 76, The Iron Mountain Trail, and the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Conversion of Saint Paul, 1542 by Michelangelo Buonarroti
At top, The Conversion of St. Paul, 1767 by Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie
In the West, Damascus is most frequently associated with the conversion incident mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible. Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus (present day Syria) when he received a vision of Jesus, and as a result accepted The Christ as the Messiah. (Some Fortean theories for what really happened have been developed in recent years.)
Ten years ago, it is intriguingly how Palestine popped up in the context of the first Israeli astronaut being killed.
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
One who died was Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut. His first name, Ilan, means "tree" in Hebrew. Ilan changed his last name from Wolferman when he joined the Israeli Air Force. On June 7, 1981, he was the youngest pilot taking part in Operation Opera, Israel's strike against Iraq's unfinished Osiraq nuclear reactor, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad.
A location often mentioned ten years ago for where the parts of the Columbia fell was Palestine, Texas. The irony of that location was not lost on many at the time, considering the fact the Columbia carried an Israeli aboard.
Even this remarkable "coincidence" is apparent in this Wikipedia mention:
Palestine entered the news in February 2003, as one of the East Texas towns that received much of the debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, where seven astronauts were killed, including the first Israeli astronaut. Palestine is also home to the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (renamed after the shuttle crash), which has flown 1700 high-altitude balloons for universities and research agencies. Source.
An FBI agent and a Texas Department of Public Safety officer looked over a 4-foot by 6-foot piece of the Space Shuttle Columbia that was found in the median along State Highway 155 north of Palestine, Texas on Sunday, February 2, 2003.
Okay, okay. No reason to go overboard. There is no need to think World War III is around the corner, despite what appears to be a blogosphere full of people seemingly hoping it is going to break out any day. Yes, really, that's what I see out there.
But, seriously, these are rough times, with many regional wildfire wars really to spark widespread chaos.
Of course, I have always found the worse hidden costs of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the suicides of our returning soldiers - and less documented - the suicides of subcontractors - and the covert mass violence situations from both. But more on that some other day.
Is it going to stop soon? Not if you listen to the prophets of the web....
General Wesley Clark has detailed his story, several times, of being told of the seven countries that would be invaded in his near future:
1. Iraq √
2. Syria ~ UN/NATO members are thinking about getting involved in the current civil war.
3. Lebanon ~ ?
4. Libya √
5. Somalia ~ Backed by Kenyan troops, on August 20, 2012, the Federal Parliament of Somalia was inaugurated.
6. Sudan ~ New constitution in 2005; South Sudan became independent in July 2011.
7. Iran ~ Israel is threatening to attack, any day now.
Then there are the Biblical quotes to which people point, often:
Revelation 6:4 ~
Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
Matthew 26:4 ~
And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Others have had other ideas:
Dans le Danube & du Rhin viendra boire Le grand Chameau, ne s'en repentira: Trembler du Rosne, & plus fort ceux de Loire Et pres des Alpes Coq le ruinera.
In the Danube and of the Rhine will come to drink
The great Camel, not repenting it:
Those of the Rhône to tremble, and much more so
those of the Loire,
and near the Alps the Cock will ruin him.
A drawing of the 1631 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius by Glovan Batista Passaro.
The December 7, 1631 Transit of Venus was followed on December 16th by a violent, unexpected eruption of Mt. Vesuvius beginning around 6:00 am. Vesivius have been inactive for a great deal of time, probably since 1139. During the night of December 16-17, earthquakes occurred every 1-15 minutes. At about 11:00 am on the 17th, a large mass of ash, gas, and stones flowed down all sides of Vesuvius, causing the liquefaction of the mountain. Ten minutes later, a tsunami up to 6 to 15 feet of height hit the coast. By 6:00 pm on December 17th, the decline of activity began, lasting several days. The death toll was variously reported to be 3000 to 6000 deceased individuals in Pompeii and other locations.
A Transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours).
Crabtree watching the Transit of Venus A.D. 1639
by Ford Madox Brown, a mural at Manchester Town Hall
The first known observation of a transit of Venus was made by Jeremiah Horrocks from his home at Carr House in Much Hoole, near Preston in England, on December 4, 1639 (November 24th under the Julian calendar then in use in England). His friend, William Crabtree, also observed this transit from Broughton, near Manchester. Horrocks and Crabtree were founding members of "Nos Keplari." Horrocks died mysteriously two years later, at the age of 22.
Charles Mason (1730-1786), astronomer, and Jeremiah Dixon, (1733-1779), surveyor and astronomer, are best known for giving their name to the Mason-Dixon line in the United States of America. But their biographies are interwoven with their viewing of two Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769.
In 1760 the Royal Society chose Charles Mason to go to Sumatra to observe the 1761 transit of Venus, and, probably on Bird's recommendation, Mason suggested Dixon should go as his assistant. An encounter with a French frigate delayed their final sailing so that they could not reach Sumatra in time. They therefore landed at the Cape of Good Hope, where the transit was successfully observed on 6 June 1761…. Mason and Dixon eventually reached England early in 1762. In August 1763 Mason and Dixon signed an agreement with Thomas Penn and Frederick Calvert, seventh Baron Baltimore [qq.v.], hereditary proprietors of the provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland, to go to North America to help local surveyors define the disputed boundary between the two provinces. Arriving in Philadelphia with their instruments in November, they began operations before Christmas 1763. When work for the proprietors on what was to become the famous Mason-Dixon line was complete late in 1766, they began on the Royal Society's behalf, at Dixon's suggestion, to measure a degree of the meridian on the Delmarva peninsula in Maryland and to make gravity measurements with a clock sent out by the Society, the same one that Maskelyne had had in St Helena and Dixon took to the Cape in 1761. They reported their task complete on 21 June 1768 and sailed for England on 11 September. Before leaving, they were both admitted as corresponding members of the American Society held in Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. In 1769 Dixon sailed to Norway with William Bayly in the Emerald to make observations of the transit of Venus on 3 June on the Royal Society's behalf. Dixon observed on Hammerfest Island, Bayly at North Cape, about sixty miles apart in case of cloudy weather. They reached England again on 30 July. Dixon returned to Durham, resuming his work as a surveyor. Among places he surveyed at this time were the park of Auckland Castle and Lanchester Common. He died [at age 55] unmarried in Cockfield, county Durham, 22 January 1779. … Mason was employed by the Royal Society during six months in 1769 on an astronomical mission at Cavan in Ireland. He observed the second transit of Venus on 3 June, partial solar eclipse of 4 June, the phenomona of Jupiter's satellites, and in August and September the famous comet which signalised the birth year of Napoleon Bonaparte....He returned to America, and died in Philadelphia in 1787. His journals were almost tossed, also found a certificate of admission into American Society of Philadelphia. Dixon was reportedly born in a coal mine, died [at 46] at Durham in 1777. ~ Oxford University Press Dictionary of National Biography
The above drawing was created, partially, in anticipation of the Transit of Venus of December 9, 1874. Bob Rickard, editor of Fortean Times, writes me: "This is an illustration from Harry Price'sPoltergeist over England(1945) and is a satirical comment on the alleged teleportation of the medium Mrs. Guppy during a poltergeist haunting in London in 1871."
Transit of Venus, December 1882
Freemason John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus was composed after the Transit of 1882 (pictured). See here for more synchromystic details related to Sousa.
After 1882, the next Transit of Venus was not until June 8, 2004. What notable events are associated with that Transit? Days before it occurred, on June 4th, Ronald Reagan, American actor, 40thPresident of the United States (b. 1911), and officially a Scottish Rite Mason, died. On June 8th, during the Transit, the 30th G8 summit took place on Sea Island, Georgia, USA.
One seemingly strange event was timed exactly for the 2004 Transit of Venus. The heart of the dauphin Louis-Charles, recognized by French royalists as Louis XVII of France, was entombed in the royal crypt of Saint-Denis Basilica outside Paris, 211 years after he perished in the French Revolution. DNA testing had verified the heart as belonging to the son of the guillotined King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. No French government officials or members of reigning royal families attended the service.
The Year 2004 is perhaps most remembered for one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, when the strongest earthquake in 40 years hit the entire Indian Ocean region. The massive 9.3 magnitude earthquake, epicentered just off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, generated enormous tsunami waves that crashed into the coastal areas of a number of nations including Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The official death toll in the affected countries is recorded as 186,983, while more than 40,000 people are listed as still missing.
Strange Eyelooks at the 17 datesof the previous sixteen Transits, plus the 2012 Transit of Venus.
For 2012, this Transit will be visible in its entirety from Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, the Pacific and eastern Asia, with the beginning of the Transit visible from North America and the end visible from Europe.
Secret Sun had a few visual observations about the forthcoming Transit of Venus, posted a month before the event, here. Etemenanki has his too, and Andrew Griffin, as well.
The Transit of Venus will be seen in the USA on June 5, 2012, from about 8 PM EDT until sunset. It will continue be visible during sunrise in the UK on June 6th. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee is on June 2-5, 2012, in the United Kingdom, as noted in "Queen's Diamond Jubilee omens."
What will truly occur in 2012?
What you perceive as happening in the wake of this year's Transit of Venus may not be as euphonious as you have heard in various peace-filled and transformational predictions. Well-known astrologer and former psychotherapist Philip Levine of Sirius Astrological Services shared with me his balanced insights about the upcoming Transit of Venus:
It seems like no big deal that Venus is doing this. One hundred five years is a very short time in the life of planets. And this Sun-Venus conjunction is squared by Mars, so all the harmony and money and love and other Venusian things that one might expect have a fairly loud dissenting voice being thrown into the mix, because Mars squares are about hostility, conflict, aggression, and competition. Such a time would seem to be challenging in terms of finding the best mix of these opposing principles.
Venus, Mars, the Sun...thoughts of a human from a company named Sirius? I can't think of a better guide to a more reasonable way to think about this event.
But what will be the most immediate phantasmagoric space-related imagery that directly follows the 2012 Transit of Venus? Indeed, it may be the June 8th opening in the USA of Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which introduces its new mythos for our beginning, graphically.
Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals. What will this movie give to all of us? What will the Transit of Venus presage for tomorrow?
+++
"I do not know how to find out anything new without being offensive. To the ignorant, all things are pure: all knowledge is, or implies, the degradation of something. One who learns of metabolism, looks at a Venus, and realises she's partly rotten. However, she smiles at him, and he renews his ignorance. All things in the sky are pure to those who have no telescopes. But spots on the sun, and lumps on the planets -- and, being a person of learning, or, rather, erudition, myself, I've got to besmirch something, or nobody will believe I am -- and I replace the pure, blue sky with the wormy heavens...."
2:11 ~ President Trump & Darth Vadar together.
