fount in alt.humor.best-of-usenet
Jim Shaffer, Jr.
Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet
Subject: [alt.gothic] George Lucas a disciple of Aleister Crowley?
From: David Gerard <f...@thingy.apana.org.au>
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 04:46:30 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: George Lucas a disciple of Aleister Crowley?
From: Cavalorn <cava...@newaeonbooks.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.gothic
Thelemic references in the Star Wars trilogy:
- Crowley was OHO of the Order of Oriental Templars (OTO) and Lucas'
original name for the Jedi Knights was the Jedi Templars.
- Crowley's secret name in the OTO was supposed to have been 'Phoenix'
and the symbol of the Rebel Alliance is a stylised phoenix.
- The windows in the Emperor's chambers at the climax of Return of the
Jedi spell 'OTO'.
- from the Book of the Law, dictated to Crowley: 'the obeah and the
wanga, the work of the wand and the work of the sword, these he shall
learn and teach.' Obeah = Obi. Wanga = Wan. Thus, Obi-Wan. And what
device is a wand one moment and a sword the next? A lightsaber, of
course; and the relevance of 'learn and teach' is obvious, since Obi-Wan
is the teacher.
- Vader's sabre is red, the colour of the sphere of Geburah, or
Severity: Obi-Wan's is blue, the colour of its opposing sphere, Chesed
or Mercy.
- Crowley makes references to 'the dwarf insane yet crafty' who is the
source of true Wisdom, obviously a reference to Yoda.
- The greatest ordeal in Crowley's A.'.A.'. system is the 'crossing of
the abyss'. One reaches the brink of a great gulf and must either
surrender everything one is and jump, or remain behind to become a
'black brother' or 'brother of the left hand path'. The 'crossing of the
abyss' is foreshadowed in A New Hope, at the point at which Luke and
Leia swing over the chasm, but is actually achieved in full in Empire
Strikes Back, at the climax of the film.
In the climax of Empire, Luke's right hand is severed at the wrist,
implying that he must take the left hand path and turn to the Dark Side,
i.e. become a 'black brother'. Faced with the choice of crossing the
Abyss or turning to the 'Left Hand Path', Luke chooses to jump, which is
the act that redeems him from a future of corruption.
- Luke is also the Horus figure, the avenger (as in Revenge of the Jedi,
the original title). In the climax of Empire, Vader (previously
identified with Set, the murderer of the father) is revealed to _be_ the
father, the dark Osiris - this being the same secret that was revealed
in the Egyptian Mysteries, namely that 'Osiris is a Black God!'
- The 'Black Brethren' are those who have 'shut themselves up', become
encased and closed off from the Universe, exactly as Vader is encased in
black armour. Their sphere on the Tree of Life is the false sphere
'da'ath', obviously the source for 'Darth'.
- Vader out of his armour proves to be a bald guy with an English
accent, uncannily reminiscent of Crowley.
Not convinced yet? Try this quote from one of Crowley's Holy Books, in
which a part of the Star Wars universe is mentioned BY NAME:
'... Thy messenger was more terrible than the Death-star.'
The messenger of the Emperor is of course Vader, who possesses (and
represents) a power far more terrible than the Death Star - the dark
side of the Force itself. As Vader himself reminds his fellow Imperials,
'The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of
the Force.'
You might recognise this scene, too...
'the chamber was corrupt; the air stank... He enveloped me with his
demon tentacles; yea, the eight fears took hold upon me.'
Garbage compactors, anyone? However, we all know what happened next:
'I slipped from the embrace as a stone from the sling of a boy of the
woodlands. I was smooth and hard as ivory; the horror gat no hold.'
Smooth and hard as ivory indeed, for Luke is wearing stormtrooper armour
in that scene.
Well, George? Been having a bit of the old do-what-thou-wilt, have we?
Cav
p.s. this is every bit as serious as Crowley's own qabalistic analysis
of nursery rhymes. ;)
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Richard Alford
> From: Cavalorn <cava...@newaeonbooks.demon.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.gothic
>
> the original title). In the climax of Empire, Vader (previously
> identified with Set, the murderer of the father) is revealed to _be_ the
> father, the dark Osiris - this being the same secret that was revealed
> in the Egyptian Mysteries, namely that 'Osiris is a Black God!'
>
*Eleusinian* Mysteries, surely? Otherwise, spookily believable.
Larry Mudd
RoTJ. (His name even appears in the credits.)
I've obsessed over the templar/jedi connection for years. There are
plenty of other things that the author of the OP left out--
Yoda lives on the planet Dagobah, which anyone who has looked into the
mysteries of Rennes-le-Chāteau will recognize as a reference to King
Dagobert II. Here's some background from the OTO if it doesn't ring
a bell:
http://www.ordotempli.org/priory_of_sion.htm
Mutt.-- Ore you astoneaged, jute you?
Jute.-- Oye am thonthorstrok, thing mud.
--James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
Jim Shaffer, Jr.
wrote:
>Yoda lives on the planet Dagobah, which anyone who has looked into the
>mysteries of Rennes-le-Chāteau will recognize as a reference to King
>Dagobert II.
I must be getting stupid, I never realized that.
The first two data points I ever heard connecting the Star Wars trilogy to the
occult (other than the whole force thing, obviously) were the planet Endor, as
in the "woman at Endor who hath a familiar spirit" in the bible, and some
nutcase doing a religious radio show who thought that Yoda's head looked like
the goat of Mendes.
Larry Mudd
<jmsh...@alltel.net> made this utterance:
>.... some nutcase doing a religious radio show who thought that Yoda's head looked like
>the goat of Mendes.
Heh heh. Maybe a little, in some of the early concept art:
http://www.obh.snafu.de/~madley/starwars/cards/yoda_johnston.jpg
"The artists were at first told only that he was to appear very old
and have non-human characteristics. The early efforts made Yoda
appear to animalistic..."
Of course, Yoda's card *would* be #23, Topps being controlled by the
Illuminati and all. ;~)
I seem to recall the woman that designed the final model saying that
she used Albert Einstein's eyes as a starting point.
Larry Mudd
(Larry Mudd) made this utterance:
>Yoda lives on the planet Dagobah, which anyone who has looked into the
>mysteries of Rennes-le-Chāteau will recognize as a reference to King
>Dagobert II.
Okay, this is weird. I just mentioned this thread on the Straight
Dope Message Board:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=57224972e8ddd68174b72281afb35df6&threadid=107259
The very next SDMB thread I opened was about the inherent creepiness
of Pruning Shears, and so naturally I was reminded of Andy Warhol's
Frankenstein:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=57224972e8ddd68174b72281afb35df6&threadid=109305
The thing is, I was using Google's image-search to try to find a pic
of the notorious pruning shears scene. Couldn't find it, but I did
find this poster for it's French release:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~julieann/warfranc.JPG
"Rene Chateau Presents"?
How weird is that? Come to think of it, "Frankenstein" is german for
"French Stone" -- and Mary Shelley certainly studied up on Alchemy, as
is demonstrated by her story "The Mortal Immortal."
http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/mws/immortal/mort.txt
Larry Mudd
>Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet
>Subject: [alt.gothic] George Lucas a disciple of Aleister Crowley?
>From: David Gerard <f...@thingy.apana.org.au>
>Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 04:46:30 +0000 (UTC)
>
>Subject: George Lucas a disciple of Aleister Crowley?
More Quasi-Masonic, although not necessarily Thelemic, fun--
During the Battle of Hoth, in The Empire Strikes Back, just after
Luke's gunner is killed and his snow-speeder is shot down, the scene
changes to the command-center, where Imperial troopers have breached
the defences. Things look hopeless.
At this point, Leia orders "Give the evacuation code-signal."
Immediately, there is a *very* quick cut of Threepio with his arms
raised, thus:
http://www.larrytaylor.wox.org/miscpics/code_signal.jpg
You will recognize this, of course, as the masonic distress signal:
"The sign is given by raising both hands and arms to the elbows,
perpendicularly, one on each side of the head, the elbows forming a
square. The words accompanying this sign, in case of distress, are, 'O
Lord, my God! is there no help for the widow's son?'"
(Of course the "Widow's Son" motif comes up more than once in the
films.)
You may get a sense of how conspicuously the shot of C-3PO is inserted
into the scene by viewing this three-second clip: (459k)
http://www.larrytaylor.wox.org/video/code_signal.avi
One other thing I ought to mention -- if we identify Vader with Seth,
it's appropriate that he is so often thwarted with the aid of the
Millenium Falcon, since Seth's tradition antagonist Horus is often
represented as a falcon.
Speaking of the Falcon.. It's a Corellian freighter, is it not? Why
Corellian? My personal feeling is that there may be some reference to
Marie Corelli, the Victorian occultist & author of a number of
interesting novels, such as The Sorrows of Satan, The Master
Christian, The Mighty Atom. I believe Lucas may have been
particularly interested in The Secret Power, in which she describes an
aircraft with a mysterious means of propulsion, with some very broad
hints about sex-magick:
>This airship was the
>crux of the whole business, for the men employed to build it were
>confident that it would never fly, and laughed with one another as
>they worked to carry out a woman's idea and a woman's design. How
>could it fly without an engine?--they very sensibly demanded,--for
>engine there was none! However, they were paid punctually and most
>royally for their labours; and when, despite their ominous
>predictions, the ship was released on her trial trip, manipulated by
>Giulio Rivardi, who ascended in her alone, sailing the ship with an
>ease and celerity hitherto unprecedented, they were more scared than
>enthusiastic. Surely some devil was in it!--for how could the thing
>fly without any apparent force to propel it? How was it that its
>enormous wings spread out on either side as by self-volition and
>moved rhythmically like the wings of a bird in full flight? Every
>man who had worked at the design was more or less mystified. They
>had, according to plan and instructions received, "plumed" the
>airship for electricity in a new and curious manner, but there was
>no battery to generate a current. Two small boxes or chambers, made
>of some mysterious metal which would not "fuse" under the strongest
>heat, were fixed, one at either end of the ship;--these had been
>manufactured secretly in another country and sent to Sicily by
>Morgana herself,--but so far, they contained nothing. They seemed
>unimportant--they were hardly as large as an ordinary petrol-can
>holding a gallon. When Rivardi had made a trial ascent he had
>inserted in each of these boxes a cylindrical tube made to fit an
>interior socket as a candle fits into a candle-stick,--all the
>workmen watched him, waiting for a revelation, but he made none. He
>was only particular and precise as to the firm closing down of the
>boxes when the tubes were in. And then in a few minutes the whole
>machine began to palpitate noiselessly like a living thing with a
>beating heart,--and to the amazement and almost fear of all who
>witnessed what seemed to be a miracle, the ship sprang up like a
>bird springing from the ground, and soared free and away into space,
>its vast white wings cleaving the air with a steady rise and fall of
>rhythmic power. Once aloft she sailed in level flight, apparently at
>perfect ease--and after several rapid "runs," and circlings,
>descended slowly and gracefully, landing her pilot without shock or
>jar. He was at once surrounded and was asked a thousand questions
>which it was evident he could not answer.
>"How can I tell!" he replied, to all interrogations. "The secret is
>the secret of a woman!"
Oh my. Considered in -that- light, what are we to make of the
exchange that takes place when there seems to be a little difficulty
getting the bird in the air, so to speak--
LEIA: Would it help if I got out and pushed?
HAN: It might.
I'm somewhat partial to this particularly purple run-on sentence from
Thelma, myself:
>It was, for
>him, one of those sudden halts in life which we all experience,--an
>instant,--when time and the world seem to stand still, as though to
>permit us easy breathing; a brief space,--in which we are allowed to
>stop and wonder awhile at the strange unaccountable Force within us,
>that enables us to stand with such calm, smiling audacity, on our
>small pin's point of the present, between the wide dark gaps of past
>and future; a small hush,--in which the gigantic engines of the
>universe appear to revolve no more, and the immortal Soul of man
>itself is subjected and over-ruled by supreme and eternal Thought.
May the Force be with you. Always.
Larry Mudd
<jmsh...@alltel.net> made this utterance:
>...somenutcase doing a religious radio show who thought that Yoda's head looked like
>the goat of Mendes.
Ahhh.. here's Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art--
http://www.nasm.edu/StarWars/images/gallery/u09l2s2c.jpg
Maybe that nutcase had something there..
Image from Star Wars - the Magic of Myth at the National Air and Space
Museum website. Most illuminating. ;~)
http://www.nasm.edu/StarWars/guide.htm
the rev. dr. mobiustrip
> - from the Book of the Law, dictated to Crowley: 'the obeah and the
> wanga, the work of the wand and the work of the sword, these he shall
> learn and teach.' Obeah = Obi. Wanga = Wan. Thus, Obi-Wan. And what
> device is a wand one moment and a sword the next? A lightsaber, of
> course; and the relevance of 'learn and teach' is obvious, since Obi-Wan
> is the teacher.
i would interpret this different. the lightsaber isn't a wand and then a
sword. the lightsaber is a word, at all times. the work of the wand is the
force.