Now this post started to gather momentum simply following a shadow. Not my own shadow mind you. I'm talking about Matt Damon's.
In The Good Shepherd poster we find a subtle reference to angel wings, whereas this next example is a little more blatant.
In this Ocean's 12 poster we find numerous MIB and once again Matt Damon is in close contact with the Shadow.
While wondering where all this was leading I decided to see what others had to say on the subject.
I came across this oil painting by artist Steven Kenny entitled The Shadow...
I also checked out the work of Carl Jung who wrote much about the shadow and the integration of our unconscious 'Dark Side'.
I even found references on cave walls reminding me that mankinds interest in the MIB is really nothing new.
I believe that if you want to explore something in any great detail then you've got to be prepared to come at it from different angels as there are always two sides of the coin to consider. Dark naturally leads to Light.
Shadows cannot exist without a light source so I turned to an ancient Sun God named Elagabalus (depicted above) for some answers.
Elagabalus
The first sun god consistently termed invictus was the provincial Syrian god Elagabalus. According to the Historia Augusta, the teenaged Severan heir adopted the name of his deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome. Once installed as emperor, he neglected Rome's traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome's most powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222.
The Historia Augusta refers to the deity Elagabalus as "also called Jupiter and Sol" (fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis vel Solis).
From Wikipedia I learned that Elagabalus, also known as Jupiter and Sol, was the very first sun god to be consistently called Invictus.
In the Invictus poster we find Matt Damon inside the Dark Man.
We also know that Invictus was the provincial name for the SYRIAN sun god Elagabalus.
Having joined these loose dots together I reached the conclusion that the Dark Man and the God of Light are really one and the same.
Regardless of which way you flip it, there is only one coin.
While writing this post I've been reading a novel called A Clash of Kings by author George R.R. Martin, the sequel to A Game of Thrones. If you haven't read these books or watched the TV show then do yourself a big favour and check them out.
As synchronicity would have it the Shadow has started to play a pivotal role in A Clash of Kings and I recently read that:
"There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."
Matt Damon's Shadow lead me to Elagabalus (a god i'd never heard of before) who in turn lead me to the name Jupiter (a god whose always circulating the syncrosphere).
Actor Liam Neeson bridges the gap between Elagabalus/Jupiter and the Shadow Man as he happens to have played both these roles.
the brightest flame casts the darkest shadows
Jupiter was commonly associated with the Golden Eagle so I wasn't surprised to find Matt Damon making contact with this giant statue in The Informant.
The Jupiter connection grows stronger if we consider that Damon also starred in the movie Spirit. Notice how the Golden Eagle and Sun/Sol/Invictus combine.
Oftentimes the simplest syncs can be the most rewarding.
The name DAMON resonates DAEMON as they're both pronounced the same.
From here on out this is going to be something of a Dummies Guide to Daemons so don't worry if you're not familiar with the concept as you'll see how this plugs into everything already discussed. Shouldn't be too difficult considering it's all connected.
The words daemon and daimon are Latinized spellings of the Greek δαίμων (daimôn), a reference to the daemons of Ancient Greek religion and mythology, Hellenistic religion and philosophy.
Daemons are good or benevolent "supernatural beings between mortals and gods, such as inferior divinities and ghosts of dead heroes", and differ from the Judeo-Christian usage of demon, a malignant spirit that can seduce, afflict, or possess humans. To distinguish the classical Greek concept from its later Christian interpretation, it is usually anglicized as either daemon or daimon rather than demon.
Hesiod's Theogony relates how the men of the Golden Age were transmuted into daimones by the will of Zeus, to serve as ineffable guardians of mortals, whom they might serve by their benevolence. In similar ways, the daimon of a venerated hero or a founder figure, located in one place by the construction of a shrine rather than left unburied to wander, would confer good fortune and protection on those who stopped to offer respect. Daemones were not considered evil.
So let's remove any fear from the Daemon by making it clear that it's not to be mistaken for the Demons you might find in horror movies. It's not going to take over your body and make your head spin and spew pea soup. It's not going to descend from the dark rafters and tear your head off before pissing on your twitching corpse. There's really no thing to fear when it comes to the Daemon.
The Daemon = No Demon
The original neutral Greek word "daimon" does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine (Hellenistic and New Testament Greek) δαιμόνιον (daimonion), and was originally intended to denote a spirit or spiritual being.
Ancient Greek δαίμων daimōn is a word for "spirit" or "divine power", much like the Latin genius.
This all syncs nicely considering Damon starred in this movie.
Plato in Cratylus gives the etymology of δαίμονες (daimones) from δαήμονες (daēmones) (= knowing or wise), though in fact the root of the word is more probably daiō (to distribute destinies).
In Plato's Apology of Socrates, Socrates claimed to have a daimonion (literally, a "divine something") that frequently warned him - in the form of a "voice" - against mistakes but never told him what to do. However, the Platonic Socrates never refers to the daimonion as a daimōn; it was always an impersonal "something" or "sign".
After the time of Plato, in the Hellenistic ruler-cult that began with Alexander himself, it was not the ruler but his guiding daemon that was venerated, for in Hellenistic times, the daimon was external to the man whom it inspired and guided, who was "possessed" by this motivating spirit.
The Hellenistic Greeks divided daemons into good and evil categories: Eudaemons and Kakodaemons, respectively. Eudaemons resembled the Abrahamic idea of the guardian angel or Higher Self in psychology; they watched over mortals to help keep them out of trouble.
To put it bluntly the Daemon = Shadow Man or Shadaemon.
Wiki: The Greek term for Daemon, εὐδαιμονία, literally "GOOD-spiritedness", is a term for "happiness".
Wiki tells us that the Daemon and Genius represent the same thing:
Ancient Greek δαίμων daimōn is a word for "spirit" or "divine power", much like the Latin genius.
Wiki also says that: The word genie in English is derived from Latin genius, which meant a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at their birth.
Your wish is my cOMAND
What does it all mean?
I dunno. You're the bloody Genius. You figure it out!
Let's wander off on a different tangent by looking at the Shadaemon's relationship with the color Blue.
In The Departed actor Matt Damon is a cop, or 'Boy in Blue', who plays on the side of the blue rugby team.
The Zebra is of course a STRIPED/SPIRITED Horse.
In this scene from Stuck on You the conjoined twins, Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, play the piano while shadowed by a big blue Avatar (which has more than a passing resemblance to the goddess Kali). I like how Damon is striped/spirited in this scene.
Moonkey by the StArmy from Syncwinnipeg on Vimeo.
After watching the video I realised that with a little rearranging:
dae mon = ape mon = ape moon = moonkey
This fits nicely considering Matt Damon played a role in the movie Che 2: Gorilla.
Now if we each have this theoretical Shadaemon/Genius/E.T./Avatar/Angel whose constantly watching over us, shadowing our every movement, kinda like a monkey on your back, then why are we not aware of it? Why are we so blind to it's existence?
Wiki says that:
Jinn is a word of the collective number in Arabic, derived from the Arabic root ǧ-n-n meaning 'to hide' or 'be hidden'. Other words derived from this root are maǧnūn 'mad' (literally, 'one whose intellect is hidden'), ǧunūn 'madness', and ǧanīn 'embryo, fetus' ('hidden inside the womb').
The Arabic root ǧ-n-n means 'to hide, conceal'. A word for garden or Paradise, جنّة ǧannah, is a cognate of the Hebrew word גן gan 'garden', derived from the same Semitic root. In arid climates, gardens have to be protected against desertification by walls; this is the same concept as in the word "paradise" from pairi-daêza, an Avestan word for garden that literally means 'having walls built around'. Thus the protection of a garden behind walls implies its being hidden from the outside. Arabic lexicons such as Edward William Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon define ǧinn not only as spirits, but also anything concealed through time, status, and even physical darkness.
You could say that it's the Daemon's/Genies/Jinn's very nature to be remain hidden or concealed from view, which is probably why I've found it so bloody hard writing this post. It's not meant to be defined or scrutinized as it's been cleverly designed/programmed to work silently below the radar.
I've come to think of the Daemon in terms of a program which was installed at birth onto all our genetic hard drives. Passing down from generation to generation it keeps us plugged into the Source and acts as a failsafe to prevent yet another 'fall' from grace.
Like a computer virus or trojan horse our Spirit/Sol/Soul can always gain access regardless of how well fortified our defences might be.
In The Good Shephard we see Matt Damon's face hidden behind a white mask.
Matt Damon's recent movie release certainly fits the pattern.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the Greek word Daemon as from the verb daiesthai "to divide, distribute."
Again, what does it all mean?
The Shadow Man, or MIB, or Guardian Angel, or Genie, or Spirit, or whatever you want to call it, is here to support us throughout life. It's an invisible support system which means it's not tangible, you can't physically touch it, but it is there nonetheless. By paying close attention to the ebb and flow of your own life you'll feel it at work rather than see it. When contact is eventually made you'll find it very hard to unmake it. Once it's slipped in past your defences...well...there's no turning back.
That's my take on it anyhoo. Ask me next week what I think about all this and I'll give you a completely different answer, but hopefully you get the jist of what I'm saying here. I've rambled on long enough but before I go there's one more thing I'd like to mention before calling it a day.
While watching the movie Green Zone there's a scene in which he chases down an Iraqi informant named Freddy. As Damon and his team catch up with Freddy (whose trying to scale a wall to escape) his artificial limb is pulled off.
"I'm a sailor of pain, AND I LOST MY LEG, climbing up the top sails, I LOST MY LEG"
I dunno.
Maybe it's time to take a cruz. To go with flow.
Happy sailing!
RA
23 comments:
Loved it. Daimon's trying to get through a door in Dogma. Then you showed Adjustment Bureau and it made sense.
Excellent post.
Continuing the Genie theme... I don't really see a boat between the two lovers in the "All the pretty horses" poster, but I do see a traditional Genie lamp with smoke coming out of the top...
Hahahahaha. Sorry, that last comment was great. Nice joke!
Referring to the bible as a source of reliable knowledge on spiritual matters? Hahahahaha. Fundamentalist christianity as opposition to mind control? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You could cut the irony with a knife.
It's really funny that you you say he's mind controlled, then act like it's his fault and he's a bad person. You people are hilarious.
"sorry im not buying it, damon is a scumbag. lamb in sheeps clothing if ever there was one a good shepard he is most certainly not."
You know, there was a time when people researching MKultra and stuff like that saw the actors and such as victims, not the ones to blame.... It makes you look like a completely delusional sociopath to suggest that they willingly underwent mind control.
See thats just it though. We're talking about thousands of years of Mythos rolled into one vivid depiction of an actor's career. Can anyone else not see the poetry in that? Daemon can be linked to Gin through Genius. And just the word genius, what does it imply? Knowing what to do? When has that NOT been good? I dont think its a matter of influence. At first I thought that was the case. But the more I dig its seems like Daemon is guardian angel invested in your free will. Or pattern that you agreed to. Plus all the people who we would consider leaders against the mind control... IE RAW, Dick, McKenna, Castaneda, Plato... I mean the whole shebang.... All experienced links to these topics. Personally I feel a certain amount of responsibility figuring this out on my own cause you really didnt ever say, Richard, what the hell you thought caused what you see... And for that I applaud you.
You'll know by the fruits.
PS I really don't think you should ignore the fact that your presentation encourages people to continue reading. Thanks.
Another great post as always - interesting to see people challenging the meaning you attach to syncs - i think thata the attractive thing about synchronicty its a personal journey of discover - we uncover meanings then find new ones (or older ones ).There may or may not be right answers but we only come to learn the meaning of our very personal experience through the sharing of interpreations - glad to see you got the smurfs in there ;-)
Bullseye. Thanks Maestro.
Great post! Great work!
See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTkatrN2c4
The Syriana poster is totally blowing my mind.
It's the three kings again--Clooney, Damon (instead of Marky Mark), and Jeffrey Wright( instead of Ice cube).
Damon and Wahlberg sometimes look very similar, and by making them interchangeable it opens up a whole bucket of monkeys . . .
incredible work, you amaze me.
Lovely, thanks!
Finally! Well worth the wait, though.
Team Invictus is the UK C (see) class catamaran challenger.
The new AI within the new iPhone is called Siri - "It's wish is your command", another genie sync, though rather uncomfortably close to the Cylon "By your command".
I spent some more time w/ this, this morning.
--you are so good at what you do.
Bloody Genius!
The way you use repetition is so effectively sublime. It reinforces the structure you are building as you build it. (poetry). It has a calming effect upon those that are climbing the thing with you!
your posts are always such a treat.
thank you
this was on my list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demian
--don't know if I'll get to it now (read it once upon a lifetime ago)
not sure if you are familiar though . . . .
Cool!
i came across this leonard cohen lyric from the song 'anthem' today, and it seemed appropriate:
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in. "
great post.
Fascinating post, I've always been interested in the work of Matt Damon since 'The Talented Mr. Ripley'. I know that means nothing but I've been following his career and see the connections you are discussing.
Alec Baldwin who was also played "The Shadow"..
and..
Liam Niessen was also in the "League of Shadows" in Batman.
Brilliant article! I loved it. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I have to say that reading this was totally freaking weird for me, cos I have just written out an article on the daemon/genius/guardian angel/higher self (for wellofurd.com - to be published at a later date) and included a section on its relationship to the colour blue, and I see that you've done the same! No kidding :O (I got the idea about the blue thing from a recent-ish thread on the synchromysticism forum about this colour and decided to include it). Talk about synchronicity! I'm gobsmacked. I personally take this as a very strong confirmation that there is definitely something to this 'daemon' idea.
Came across this too a few days ago about Aleister Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel concept, related to your post, for anyone not familiar with it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Guardian_Angel
"Within the system of the magical Order A∴A∴ founded by Aleister Crowley, one of the two most important goals is to consciously connect with one’s Holy Guardian Angel, the "Silent Self", representative of one's truest divine nature: a process termed “Knowledge and Conversation.”
"It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Once he has achieved this he must of course be left entirely in the hands of that Angel, who can be invariably and inevitably relied upon to lead him to the further great step—crossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple."
Even though the Holy Guardian Angel is, in a sense, the “higher self”, it is often experienced as a separate being, independent from the adept."
Thanks again for publishing this wonderfully insightful post.
Horselover Fat
Daemon plays a lot as false identity or LOKI trickster god in departed he crooked cop in private Ryan episode where they found Ryan had similar story of private Ryan, in dogma he plays loki the angel in good Shepard and adjustment bureau and bourne identity he plays secret agent who identity is altered or false. He plays prankster roles movie stuck with you he plays blue screen demon spirit Greg Kinnear that Innear EAR organ responsible for balance and Vertigo so demon is god possessed dance movement sword mastery leg movement and etc that very clever i will watch this movie. On first glance premise of movie was very silly.
Paranoia will destroy ya...and it goes like this...
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