[UPDATED: Dec. 29, 2005]
So, when the third night before the Nones has come,
And the earth is drenched, sprinkled with heavenly dew,
You’ll search for the claws of the eight-footed Crab in vain:
It will plunge headlong beneath the western waves.
Ovid, Fasti, Book I
Left page : (close up of the steel heads Eyes)
Right page: A red motif
of two facing/fighting fishes or eels or whales printed on sand.
7 or 8 seashells are distributed in a seemingly random
fashion on the sand.
The page number is place inside a slanted (45° angle)
RED figure.
This double page somehow refers to Ely's
OCTOGON, also called the Eye or the LANTERN.
The
close-up on the Steel Eye on page 8 confirms this correlation.
The seashells are forming the pattern of a star. The word MAROONED form the
anagram A RED MOON.
Page 8-9: Marooned. Motive of red fighting dolphins or whales (?)
printed on the sand + several seashells. The word "OTTO" (italian word
for 8) is printed white on a red little face on page 8.
Concepts of isolation, exile from home, desert island. Publius Ovidius
Naso was exiled from Rome (Italy) by emperor Augustus. He landed on
TOMIS (now Constanta), a coastal city of the Black Sea, now situated in
Romania... Ovidius was a good OBSERVER of the Roman Life.
MAROONED contains the AMOR/ROMA anagram. Rome was considered as the
city of Love since the Roman era. In his Art of Love, Publius Ovidius
Naso celebrates Roman women as the most beautiful.
The music of MAROONED has a very nostalgic tone. It could well express
the notion of Exile/Separation from home/Remoteness that is implicitly
suggested by the title.
Ovidius was assigned to this remotest outpost of the Roman Empire after
having an argument with the emperor, who was displeased by his book,
the Art of Love (Ars Amatoria).
Interestingly, the coat of arms of Romania contains, among other symbols, a pairs of dolphins.
At the beginning, we hear waves and seagulls. The city of TOMIS/CONSTANTA is a famous place on the Black Sea since Antiquity.
Though we are reluctant to admit it, we are driven to link this
double page to the biblical Story of Mary Magdalene.
- The red color made of seashells
- the "marooning" (sand, beach)
- The star pattern of the seashells
- The page number (8) and its symbolic association with the Christ.
- The homonymy between STEEL EYE and STELLA (latin word for STAR).
- The fact that Ely's Octogon can represent a compass, indicating the
eight directions. ORIENTATION.
An ancient title of the north star was STELLA
MARIS, STAR OF THE SEA.
http://essenes.net/8.htm
Stella Miryai (Polaris) has been known by many names in the past;
Miriam (by the Hebrews), Stella Maris 'Star of the Sea', the Pathway;
the Pointer - showing the way;
Navel of the World, Gate of
Heaven, Hub of the Cosmos, the Highest Peak
of the World Mountain, Lodestar;
the Steering Star; the Ship
Star, Stella Polaris, the Tyrian
Cynosure,
the Steering Star and the Chariot Star,
Loadstar or Lodestar in ( a
magnetic rock that is used to determine magnetic north) ,
Merchant's Guide, the Ship Star , Angel Stern, Star of the
Angel, the Golden Peg, the Spindle Star, the Pivot Star, the Pole Star and the
Stake Star., Kynosoura (Dog's Tail), Cynosure ( 'the central
attraction'),
Pivot of the Planets, Emperor of Heaven, Tou Mu (Taoist goddess
of the North Star believed to have the power to prolong life and to
answer all prayers), 'Great Honorable Lord of the Heavens',
the Virgin Mary . Stella Miryai (Polaris) has been seen as a great
celestial millstone peg upon which the wheat of the stars are ground
and it is true that our lives and experiences, in the lower worlds
ruled by these stars, hopefully culminates in the development of
perfect love represented by Miryai the Star of Loving Compassion and
Star of graduation from the lower worlds of fate and karma.
Mary Magdalene is also often depicted wearing red, crimson, or purple
coat.
Mary Magdalene is frequently shown with red hair. Her Feast: July 22.
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Mary+Magdalene&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1
http://www.magdalene.org/alone/buonaventure.htm
http://reluctant-messenger.com/gospel-magdalene.htm
http://northernway.org/mmag.html
[…]When Mary Magdalene was called a hetera or prostitute back in the early centuries of Christianity, the people of the
time knew perfectly well what that meant, she was a Temple
Priestess, serving the Goddess.[…]
[…]Ancient pagan temples of both Old and New Testament times
were populated with sacred
"prostitutes." But these women were
NOT what we consider prostitutes today. They were highly
respected representatives of whichever goddess whose temple they
served in. The words used to indicate them are not "whore" or
prostitute, but Hierodules or Hetera (singular) heterae (plural),
meaning sacred dedicant, sacred
temple-worker. My friend, a
sort of historical columnist, Joseph Kerrick writes:
Truly sacred prostitutes existed in past cultures, like the
heterae of Greece and the shaktis of India. In fact, the words "prostitute" and "prostitution" have such an indelibly negative
imprint in the modern Western mind that in order to properly
grasp the meaning of these things we should resort to one of the
older terms -- so I'll use "hetera" and its derivatives.
So: the purpose of heterism is not mere sexual gratification, but
first of all healing,
and secondly transcendence. In
the first
function, the hetera is what we would today call a therapist, who
specializes in the use of sex to
accomplish the aim of healing.
The second function [transcendence] has been practically
forgotten in the postmodern world, and can only be understood in
a societal context where the higher forms of spirituality are
practiced. The process of negating
the ego to perform selfless
service to God and his children is only known in the West in a
matrix of ascetic monasticism; but there have been, and
are,
other cultures where these same principles are applied in a
specialized form of sexual relationships -- namely, heterism in
its higher form, in which it can not only heal people of
pathologies, but help them transcend the human condition and
become better than they could ever hope to be in "normal" life.
"But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to
kiss her often on the mouth," that Gospel [of Mary] reads. "The
rest of the
disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They
said to him, `Why do you love her more than all of us?' The
savior answered and said to them, `Why do I not love you like (I
love) her?' "
In looking again at the picture, I noticed the twin pillars holding up the arch. These pillars, "Boaz and Jachin" mentioned
in the Book of Kings, are symbolic of the Temple of Jerusalem,
and this reminds me of the "Shekinah" (Bride of Yahweh) whose
myth, like Mary Magdalene's, is another Bride in exile--suffering
separation from her Beloved following the destruction of the
Temple which cannot be rebuilt because of the "cardiosclerosis"
(hardness of heart) that seems to be so prevalent on the planet.
The "blueprint" for the New Jerusalem is (as in the Book of
Revelation!) the Sacred Union (the "sword" and "blade" triangles
intertwined--Star of David). Carl Jung has this
right--integration of the "opposites" (Logos/Reason and
Eros/relationship) starts in each individual psyche and spreads
out into the community and from there into the wider world.
This painting seems to say that the "abandoned one" (MAROONED!) has been locked
out of the "Church" which does not recognize the
need for her necessary contribution to the spiritual (and
therefore also the emotional and physical) well-being of the
community. The "Bride" is being denied access...
One tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that following Jesus
Christ's death and resurrection, she used her position to gain an
invitation to a banquet given by Emperor Tiberius Caesar. When she met
him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed "Christ is risen!"
Caesar laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely
as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he
finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red, and she
continued proclaiming the Gospel to the entire imperial house.
About the association between MAROONED
and Mary Magdalene
http://essenes.net/8.htm
I think TDB has something to do with the unification of male and female
within the Church. This means having a new look at the central figure
of the Missing Disciple, that is Mary Magdalene. To quote Ed conroy,
author of the article: "I think that the rejuvenation of
goddess-oriented and earth-centred religion, as well as the awakening
of Mary Magdalene in the collective awareness, is indicative of the
divine yearning toward union within us."
http://www.masoncode.com/Jesus%20Christ%20Master%20Mason.htm#1