The Protestant Reformation in England

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To distract me from our own little disaster here at home and the failure of our republic, I have been reading a book on the Protestant Reformation in England. Holy Moly. I really did not understand. It goes on and on, and make a wrong move, say the wrong thing about the Eucharist or the Holy Rood and its the tower for you! Off with their heads!

Nothing like being burnt at the stake to see what someone is made of!

This will add a tremendous amount of nuance to my next trip to the UK, I can tell you!

Yay!

The Old Religion and Story Structure in Superhero Movies

As we are all aware, the modern cinema has moved beyond the giant robot to embrace a far richer and more diverse metaphor to better represent the totality of our civilization, that of comic book superheroes. I have recently taken it upon myself to review the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe of 12 films (so far) in order to prepare myself to analyze both the text and subtext of this pillar of popular culture and in so doing was surprised that there were actually some very entertaining movies in this torrent of cinematic excess in the service of art or at least commerce.

Among these 12 were numerous films that fulfilled all the best expectations of the graphic novel whether that involved destroying entire worlds or the threat to life in the galaxy and managed this intense mayhem without being overly burdened by humor, character development or any of those other old-fashioned story elements. But even in the most excessive of these there were moments that were really well done in a non-kinetic fashion, that is, well written, or well acted, or clever. There were four films in particular that had actual humor including Iron Man (2008), Thor (2011), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Ant-Man (2015). 

It was Thor (2011) in particular that completely surprised me. This is the film which is, of course, loosely based on the pre-Christian religion of northern Europe, as documented in the Icelandic Poetic and Prose Eddas as well as other sources. In particular, the film's lead character is the eponymous Thor of Asgard who was said to wield a hammer that destroyed his enemies and would make the sound of thunder when it was used.

There are two movies in one in Thor (2011), one that takes place in Asgard which is boring and stupid and one which takes place on Earth, or Midgard, which is very entertaining. This essay discusses some of the elements that the filmmakers used to achieve their aims: a brilliant director, excellent casting especially of the lead, an appealing and classic story structure, and a story itself that incorporates humor and human values but fails to rely on digital visual effects (how could that be?!)

Thor after his shower and without his shirt....

makes quite an impression on the research assistant.

The fundamental reason that I believe that the “Midgard/Earth” portion of this movie works so well is that it is based on a classic story structure that is sometimes called “setup and payoff”. In “setup and payoff” the audience knows something early on that the other characters in the drama do not know. So as the story proceeds we know that there will be a time when the truth is revealed and that can be very entertaining. "Setup and Payoff" is used on a regular irregular basis in the West as a fundamental element of storytelling and especially of comedy.  One movie that comes to mind is Galaxyquest (1999) which makes very good use of this technique.

In this case, the setup is that we know that the homeless person who seems deranged *is* actually Thor, at least in a modified Marvel Cinematic Universe sort of way, that he is from Asgard, and that he has been banished for his irresponsible behavior. We know this, but *they*, the mere mortals of earth/Midgard, don't. When he saves the lives of his friends at the expense of his own we share in the tragedy yet we know that still all may be well, and indeed, being worthy, his mighty hammer, Mjornir, is restored to him, with his armor, and in full view of everyone he defeats evil.

This of course makes use of another important trope of storytelling one that has been called "He's Back!" and goes by other names as well.  (1) 

The elder scientist tries to convince Natalie Portman that no one will believe her theory without evidence, when Thor's friends arrive to Midgard by way of the Bifrost.  Setup and payoff.

It helps that the main characters are cast so well. In particular, Chris Hemsworth both looks the part, looks great in armor and a pair of jeans, and can play the part straight yet with a touch of humor.  It also helps that the film is directed by Kenneth Branagh slumming here for his first superhero movie. An entertaining script, good actors, well directed, and very few digital effects that do not serve the story.  No wonder Hollywood finds it difficult to make an entertaining movie.

Its a shame they did not emphasize the human sacrifice which is so a part of indigenous European religion, but this is a comic book, after all.  Maybe the sequel of the sequel will make more use of "kennings".

A classic text on the Old Religion

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Religion-North-Ancient-Scandinavia/dp/0837174201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460974181&sr=1-1

Marvel Cinematic Universe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe

Kenneth Branagh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Branagh

Thor (2011) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800369/

1, There are several extensive lists of storytelling tropes on the Internet, almost all of which are aimed at popular culture, but they could also be applied, with some modification, to classical culture as well.

See http://tvtropes.org/

When All Roads Lead to Rome

A friend has just finished a chapter of his life and is making a pilgrimage to Rome as a reward of sorts.  My friend has tastes that lean towards the exotic and the esoteric.   He has studied well the ancient mysteries and is a worthy recipient of the ancient knowledge.  He has asked me what he might see when in Rome and I have come up with a tentative first list that does not begin to be exhaustive.   It is also a little terse and will hopefully be somewhat annotated and extended later.

Before you go to Rome, buy the Oxford Archaeological Guide to Rome.

Review the website listed below which is about underground Rome. http://www.romasotterranea.it/homepage.html

When in Rome, do these things:

Remember when you are there that the accursed Christians stole from everyone and desecrated the sacred buildings that were left in their trust.  Whenever you see ancient concrete you are seeing the foundations of a building that has had its stone and marble exterior and other accessories, windows, doors, lamps and so forth,  stolen.

Remember that there have been styles of restoration over the last few millennia and that it can be very hard to tell without guidance how old certain things are, what is a restoration, what is authentic etc.  

Some of the most hated architecture is from the Fascist period of the last century.  But this posed hatred is an affectation and history will probably judge their work better than the art snobs of a few years ago.  Or maybe not, I am just biased against art snobs in principle and haven't really looked that closely.

When the Roman Empire "fell", it did not actually fall and lasted another 1000 years or so in the East, and that nothing architectural really went away.  The population dived from a high of about one million to a number that is quite small, quite possibly a few tens of thousands.

The entire city then was a ruin and a garden.  As time went by, some of the rich families acquired great tracts of Rome and made them their private gardens.  And why not?  No one else was taking care of things.  If only they had not destroyed so many antiquities in the process of making their gardens.  See the Farnese Gardens here at Wikipedia.

Remember that Rome is not open all the time, things have weird hours, sometimes an attendant or guard will let you in if you ask nicely or perhaps provide a tip or honoraium.  Apparently you need to make a reservation in advance to see the Vatican.   Same with the Borghese gallery which comes highly recommended.

Many of the originals of things you see are in museums and what is in situ, on the street as it were, is a restoration.

See the Museum of Roman Civilization which has among other things a recreation of the 2nd century Rome from the Forma Urba..

Count how many words in this post are standard English and yet are also perfectly good Latin.   

Climb the victory tower of Trajan which inside has a spiral staircase to the top. 

See one of the vast caverns inside the hills of Rome left over from quarrying the local tufa before they built their monuments out of marble, an affectation they picked up from the Greeks.   I keep reading about these caverns but I have never heard of anyone who has actually seen them.  Possibly they are closed or just dangerous.

Constantine giving the "finger"

When you see a giant marble head, or hand or foot, recall that Romans often made their cult statues (the image of the God for the temple) in a way that economized on the marble or other stone required. The head, hand, and feet are what was exposed of the statue, the rest might be in a toga and therefore did not have to be carved (not to mention quarried, transported, etc).

See the black stone from the 6th century BC and ponder the meaning of the archaic Latin.

Walk the floor of the original Roman senate (not the one that Augustus built) and stand where Julius stood when he was murdered by his fellow senators in the name of freedom, which really meant to preserve the privileges of their class.

See the aqueduct switching center and distribution system.

Find the recently discovered Orbs of Imperium hidden by Maxentius when he was defeated by the traitor Constantine at the Milvius Bridge.

Horatius at the Bridge.   Find the bridge.

Make contact with those who are attempting to revive the old religion in Rome against the hated Christians and perform some ceremony with them.

Go to the Kings House (the Regia) and ponder what it means about the origins of Rome, the kings of Rome and what is true and what is not.

Go to the bridges of Rome and remember that the leading religious figure was the Pontifex Maximus and that bridges and early Roman religion are somehow connected. (The Pope is still officially the Pontifex Maximus of Rome).

Go to the House of the Vestals and light a fire.

Go to Alba Longa and wonder if the brother-murderer Romulus really came from there.

Trace the route of the Lupercalia. Best to do so naked while wearing a thong made of the sacrificed goats or dog.   The Lupercalia was probably an initiation rite of young men to a brotherhood from the time of the earliest Rome or before.

Trace the route of the Triumph.

Go to where the Sibylline books were kept (in the archives of one of the Temples) and lament the loss of important knowledge in the various fires and tragedies of Rome.

Go underground at one of the Baths and see how the plumbing worked.

Go to Ostia / Portus and see the port of Rome which has much more of an authentic Roman city from the late empire.

Go to Pompeii/Herculaneum before they are destroyed by being exposed to the weather and the light and ask yourself why the roads had those stepping stones.

Go to the tombs and memorials of the murdered Gracchi Brothers and learn about the Social Wars and then think about the future of America.

Find the Milvius Bridge and realize that this is where Western Civilization was destroyed  by Constantine who fell into superstition and began to worship the hateful murdered god/king of the Christians.

See the Parthenon and imagine what it looked like before the wretched Christians got there.  It has stood for 2000 years and we can't make buildings that last for 100.

Tour some of the catacombs and realize that they were not just for Christians and that Christians never really worshipped there in secret.  The catacombs were a response to the lack of space in and around Rome and its expense.  So they dug underground and put their crypts there.    Many of the catacombs have not been explored (or at least we are told that).

Realize that the Romans were not permitted to bury the dead within the sacred boundaries of the city (the Pomeranium) so they built their tombs on roads leading out of the city. Therefore go to the Appian way and outside the formal walls of Rome see some of the tombs.   In a prime spot outside the walls of the city is the tomb of the Scipio Family, the family of the famous Scipio Africanus.

When in Rome keep your eyes open for the family name Colonna.   I am friends with Kerry Colonna who worked with us at deGraf/Wahrman.   The Colonna mansion and private art collection, one of the three most prestigious private art collections in the world, is open for tourists on Saturday morning each week.  Go see it.

See the tomb of Augustus and imagine what it looked like before the Christians plundered it.  (Note: I read that the tomb will have some restoration work done to it after all these years of being essentially ignored. Something to do with the 2000 year anniversary of the death of Augustus).

See the Golden House of Nero underneath one of the Christian Slave Churches.

See the secret library of the Vatican where both truth and lies are told.

Visit the Etruscan tombs.  What were the "mirrors" for?

The Cloaca Maxima was originally above ground and used as drainage for rivers that flooded what would become the Forum.   It was started in the 6th century BC and many workers were killed building it.

See the great sewer of Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, built in the time of the Kings.   A good article on the history of the Cloaca Maxima can be found here.

Remember that the Cult of Mithra was a a late empire cult, mostly in the army. Perseus slaying the Bull probably refers to the secret information involving what the soul must do after death to pass safely among the stars. This Mithra may or may not have anything to do with the religions of the East, although they are certainly an Eastern import.

Ave Imperator, Morituri te Salutant.

Read about the time I first saw a Roman ruin in this post.

The Old Religion at the End of the Year

The years go by faster and faster, it seems, and our fate is known and approaches swiftly and inevitably. Yet as horrifying as our reality may be, it is always fun for me to remember that they have put up an evergreen in the center of Manhattan and decorated it with toys and mistletoe again this year. I doubt very much if most of the people who view the tree are aware of the meaning these rituals had to some of our ancestors, but it is impressive that the tradition survives at all.

This is the story of an ancient state religion that survived disaster not once, but twice, and survives to this day in two different forms. And whose fundamental principles you recreate every time you look at a clock or tell the time. But first lets set the stage for what the French historians call the longue duree. (2), or the long view.  It has various other names, but it means to try and take a longer perspective.

So first I indicate how astronomy does not change much in our lifetimes, but does change over a longer period.... so ...

The earth spins on its axis in a somewhat eliptical orbit around the so-called Sun and while it does so, entropy inevitably increases and nothing you or I can do will change that. The universe is by no means static and will change on the scale of the solar orbits, but we won't notice because by that time the trillions of nanomachines partitioned into the various cellular entities that make up our so-called individual physical existence will have collapsed into a soup of decayed matter long before.

I know that is a little depressing, but read on, it picks up.

We call the circle of circles around the solar mass a "year", having picked a point on that ellipse to demark the beginning and the end for accounting purposes and because it corresponds to an inflection point on the curve. This subdivision of a year into 360 circles as the planet rotated and circled the sun was noticed by an ancient people "between the rivers" (== Meso Potamia) many years ago and they developed a "sacred mathematics" to explain what they observed in the sky and all around them and made this a central part of their religion and world view. In fact, it formed one of the pillars of their religion and the rituals that held up the state that they lived in.

Consider what it means for there to be a state religion in a country. It means that certain beliefs that are critical to the legitimacy of the government are built into the fabric of society in a very functional and specific set of ways that has evolved over time. When our constitution discusses "separation of church and state", they did not mean that it was unconstitutional to have religion in our government, it meant that the religious leaders would not be selected by the state, or paid for by the state, or that these religious leaders would be part of government by the very fact of their role in the religion. The specific counterexample for the American Revolution was that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the top bishop of the Church of England, was chosen by the King and acknowledged the authority of the King over the Bishop of Rome (e.g. the Pope).

In ancient times, this relationship was much stronger between religion and governance, though of course there was a huge amount of variation. To give some examples and to simplify to make the point, the heads of religion of the Roman Republic were all members of the leading familes of Rome. The rituals that were performed and how they were performed were considered of the utmost importance to the survival of Rome and its rule in the world. They did not care for the most part what people believed as long as those rituals were performed in the correct way and that whatever else you did or believed did not prevent you from doing those essential rituals.

In many ancient societies that we know of, the ruling class or monarch would consult with various religious leaders before starting a war, or fighting a battle. The Romans certainly did. It was believed that the gods that you worshipped had an opinion about what was the right thing to do in such a situation and by using certain technical arts that the gods would tell you and help you to choose wisely. Or possibly that you could influence the outcome of the situation with proper ritual and sacrifice. The ancient Romans were big on making deals with "god".... you do this and I will sacrifice 100 cows to you, etc.

Although there was huge variation in the ancient world, I think it is fair to say that aspects of the religion of a people was very tighly bound up into the legimacy and process of how they lived their lives, paid their taxes, went to war, and chose who ruled over them and in what way. The more formal a state, with a bureaucracy, taxes, and so forth, the more likely they were to have a formal state religion.

But if the state religion said that the rulers ruled by divine right and were in fact themselves gods, or Gods, whatever, then if they got deposed that was bad for the religion. To say the least. And that is what happened to the Neo Bablylonians when their boys lost the war and the Persians came in about 539 BC.

So what is a religion to do? Well, it adapts. Now instead of the gods being planets and stars and comets, they are more universal forces and archetypes. And you formalize some of the loose influences of the stellar bodies into their archetypal forms. And if you are lucky enough to have Alexander the Great around, you adapt all this to Hellenistic culture and become the dominant way of predicting the future with the cachet of being based on "old Babylonian religion" and there you have it: modern astrology. Based on the former state religion of NeoBabylon.

On top of that, and not entirely independently, part of that astrology branches off and without the prediction part and morphs into a science of Astronomy. Now the astronomers don't much believe in the influence of the Zodiac, for example, but they do take a lot of terminology and conventions and continue using them: like 360 degrees in a circle, to name one obvious example. And so, too, Astronomy maintains some fundamental beliefs that comes from the Old Religion.

We should only hope that some of our belief systems should be so resilient and last even half as long.

For a good bibliography of Babylonian Astronomy & Astrology, see:

http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/babylon/babybibl.htm