2D → 3D → ?

Mystical origami

A recent post, a bit of poetic sport, was inspired by the image above, which I ran across during my ongoing and peripatetic work on my Scout/Freemasonry book.  (The source post, btw, is pretty good:  Temple Building part two)  Looking for the image's provenance via Google image search, the diagrams in the last post were offered as similar results.

The Google search feature often yields surprises; it'd be a worthy esthetic concept to explore further.

The image above seems to be unique on the web, it only comes up where I originally found it (and used on LoS without permission, but I believe it falls under Fair Use).

I've seen the Latin cross/cube configuaration before, may have even used it to make cubes, dice perhaps, but don't recall having an explicit "huh" kind of reaction.  Perhaps I did.  On the other hand, as far as I can recall, this is the first time I've seen the pyramid broken down into the cross "pattée" recalling alternate versions of the Maltese Cross or the St. George Cross used by the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry (a  Christian rite which is practiced in all the Scandinavain countries, name notwithstanding).  Not to mention the similar Templar variant. 

At the mention of Templars, I can't help but recall mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, a self-styled Templar and now-expelled member of the Norwegian Order of Freemasons, who practice the Swedish Rite and use a red cross pattée in their coat of arms.  This thought is inevitable given the events in Aurora, Colorado which occurred after this post was started. (I actually wrote it about 10 days ago, just after the recent DARPA post mentioned at the start of this one, and publish it today after a few additions.  It was, btw, written before my last post, a few brief thoughts about the theories surrounding the recent shootngs in Aurora, Colorado.)

InTemple Building part two, the author states "The Maltese Cross is the expression of the Higher World, the Latin Cross of the Lower World."  Perhaps this is true; the crosses in the image do appear to form a stylized figure of a human figure.  Intriguingly, "many crowns worn by monarchs have jewelled cross pattée (or pattée) symbols mounted atop the band.....A cross pattée is particularly associated with crowns in Christian countries."  Maybe this is because it does represent the "Higher World" associated with the head.  In our stylized human it "is" the head.

I'm not informed enough to write about the intersection of mathematics, geometry and mysticism, but I do know that science and mysticism have gone hand in hand like chocolate and peanut butter, from Pythagoras to Isaac Newton.  Numerology, though often an insipid banality pushed by synchromystics, actually has an interesting and venerable history.  I recall reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok, a novel about the relationship between two Jewish kids, among other things.  One of these boys wants to become a mathematician, which gives hims a certain deftness with numbers that impresses his friend's rabbi father when bandying about numbers in order to find the esoteric meanings of Biblical texts.  I later learned this was called gematria, defined by Wackelypoolia as:

(Hebrew: גימטריה‎ gēmaṭriyā) is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like. It is likely that the term derives from the order of the Greek alphabet, gamma being the third letter of the Greek alphabet (gamma + tria) Alternatively, the word "gematria" is generally held to derive from Greek geōmetriā, "geometry", which was used as a translation of gēmaṭriyā, though some scholars believe it to derive from Greek grammateia, rather; it's possible that both words had an influence on the formation of the Hebrew word. It has been extant in English since the 17th century from translations of works by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Although ostensibly derived from Greek, it is largely used in Jewish texts, notably in those associated with the Kabbalah.

It is interesting that the word is derived in all likelihood from the word "geometry", a composite of two ancient Greek words: γεωμετρία; geo- "earth" and -metria "measurement" ergo "measurement of the earth."

Mysticism and geometry, of course, come together most forcefully in Freemasonry, whose mystical and ethical system is expressed in geometrical metaphors regarding shapes and the tools that draw them.

Doppelgänger - regnägleppoD

Conspiracy theories are flying fast and furious with the Aurora shootings, and I intend to to do a little survey focusing on some LoS themes which resonate in this shitty event.  One of the more interesting things I've seen is about the apparent difference between photos of alleged shooter James Holmes, before and after, which some are saying is an echo of the "second Oswald" theory.  It's fascinating how this once fringe-of-the-fringe theory has gathered widespread momentum, almost a trope in mass murders conspiracy speculation.   

Speculations about mind control are also widely present in this case, fuel added by the fact Aurora is a huge military town and Holmes was a whiz-kid studying neuroscience. 

Perhaps the most interesting thing I've seen is an eyewitness account that someone in the theater received a call, then went to prop open the fire exit through which the shooter entered.  True?  Who knows?  His interview is being held at Gateway High School.  Why is that relevant?  because, Janus, mentioned in the account below, is the god of doubles and is also the god of....gateways.

I thought of the Doppelgänger, personally, and looked it up.  Appropriately, the sighting of a Doppelgänger is said to be an ill omen or a harbringer of tragedy.  In my one experience of having a Doppelgänger dream, I can assure you it was one of the most terrifying nightmares I've ever had, one of the few times I've actually awoken with a strangled cry and on the verge of hyperventilating.  It was certainly an ill omen in my dream, which reeked of death to the point of having an explicit warning of the intention to kill me featured at one point.

But I have no time for that just yet.  Still, I'd like to share this account from Wiki about Abe Lincoln, which is a bizarre and intriguing tale I've never heard before.  Hopefully I'll get to something substantial soon.  I post this because, well, it's curious and I'm throwing myself a gauntlet to get something done soon!

It's also another famous shooting which occured in a theater....

Abraham Lincoln 

[shamelessly hustled from Wikipedia]

Carl Sandburg's biography contains the following:

A dream or illusion had haunted Lincoln at times through the winter. On the evening of his election he had thrown himself on one of the haircloth sofas at home, just after the first telegrams of November 7 had told him he was elected President, and looking into a bureau mirror across the room he saw himself full length, but with two faces. It bothered him; he got up; the illusion vanished; but when he lay down again there in the glass again were two faces, one paler than the other. He got up again, mixed in the election excitement, forgot about it; but it came back, and haunted him. He told his wife about it; she worried too. A few days later he tried it once more and the illusion of the two faces again registered to his eyes. But that was the last; the ghost since then wouldn't come back, he told his wife, who said it was a sign he would be elected to a second term, and the death pallor of one face meant he wouldn't live through his second term.^[1]

This is adapted from Washington in Lincoln's Time (1895) by Noah Brooks, who claimed that he had heard it from Lincoln himself on 9 November 1864, at the time of his re-election, and that he had printed an account "directly after." He also claimed that the story was confirmed by Mary Todd Lincoln, and partially confirmed by Private Secretary John Hay (who thought it dated from Lincoln's nomination, not his election). Brooks' version is as follows (in Lincoln's own words):

It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a "sign" that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term.^[2]

Lincoln was known to be superstitious,^[3] and old mirrors will occasionally produce double images; whether this Janus illusion can be counted as a doppelgänger is perhaps debatable, though probably no more than other such claims of doppelgängers. An alternate consideration, however, suggests that Lincoln suffered vertical strabismus in his left eye,^[4] a disorder which could induce visions of a vertically displaced image.

--------
 

1. ^ Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years. Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, 1926. Volume 2, Chapter 165, pp.423-4
2. ^ Brooks, Noah. Washington in Lincoln's Time. Century, New York, 1895. Reprinted as Washington, D.C., in Lincoln's Time. Edited by Herbert Mitgang. Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1971. University of Georgia Press, Athens, 1989. First ed., pages 220-221. Mitgang's ed., pages 198-200.
3. ^ Luthin, Reinhard H. The Real Abraham Lincoln. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1960. Page 116.
4. ^ Goldstein, JH (Mar-Apr 1997). "Lincoln's vertical strabismus". J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 34 (2): 118–20. PMID 9083959.

Real DARPA devices, experiments and statistics hidden among Wikileaks files

Humanoid-eradication doublet -- 'soccer' configuration

'Confucius'-type relay for liquid-laser wraith enclosure

 

'Vendetta'-type (k-4.32) twin-sided blindness defense activator

 

Control humans versus 'Siamese' twins and triplets; psychic blast-radius in sucide ESP attacks

Illuminati-satellite-blocking helmet materials -- crown-pipe and 'thought-tube' diameters and material indicators

Sine-wave amplitude readings -- huminal testing of thought-based plasmosonic weaponry

Progress of witness-liquidation after circumpunct sightings in NE Vermont 1963-1986

Variable-speed parasite-projectile control unit; quasi-portable version 2.2

Digging for gold

Compared to the last few years, 2012 hasn't been very productive for LoS.  Various committments, fatigue, burnout, what have you; all have led to shorter and less frequent posts.  If you're a regular writer you know the drill.

I've called upon a handful of friends, a good half-dozen, to make some posts, always with vague "I'll think of something" replies which have led nowhere.  That's life.  People are busy; they've got their own things going on.

Gid and I want to keep the blog going, but it needs some fresh new voices with different obsessions, geographic inspiration, political leanings, neurotic impediments, etc., etc.

So if you stumble upon this here post and think you'd like to give it a shot, please post a comment and we'll set something up.  Read through some older posts and get a feel for our approach.

There's no pay and no glory, but if you've got a hankering to jot down a sketch about something you think others might be interested in reading.....even that's not so important, finally, as long as you yourself are amused....we're willing to give you a forum, if it fits.  It's a big tent and we don't feel the need to agree with you.  We can't guarantee we'll post what you write; if it sucks we'll simply say "No thank you" and no harm will come of it.

Consider it and let us know.