What's in a Name?

Here's another update...this one from the earlier post about the cemetery visit. My friend, who took the terrific pictures on that trip, also provided me with some aditional fascinating information. The whole time we were examining the Masonic gravemarkers, we kept running across lettters. Abbreviations for things we weren't quite sure of. My buddy found a long list he got it from another blog put together by a guy named Steve. So Steve, thanks for the info.

If you happen to come upon any Masonic implements, and see abbreviations that mystify you, just use our litttle list for reference. My personal favorite right now is the AUM ( Ancient Order of Mysteries ) This is an abbreviation we ran into time and time again during our excursion. Heavy stuff, no? And as I said before, these inscriptions tell you A LOT about what these people think of themselves. Check it out:

**.....AF&AM - (masonic)
AOF - Ancient Order Of Foresters
AOH - Ancient Order Of Hibernians
AOKMC - Ancient Order Of Knights of Mystic Chain
AOUW - Ancient Order Of United Workmen
ALOH - American Legion of Honor
AUM - Ancient Order of Mysteries- Masonic Order
BPOE - Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
BPOEW - Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of theWorld
CK of A - Catholic Knights of America
COOF - Catholic Order of Foresters
CTAS - Catholic Total Abstinence Society
CBKA - Commander Benevolent Knights Association
CCTAS - Crusaders-Catholic Total Abstinence Society
CSA - Confeserate States of America
DAR - Daughters of American Revolution
EBA - Emerald Beneficial Association
FAA - Free and Accepted Americans
F&AM - Free and Accepted Masons.
FOE - Fraternal Order of Eagles
GALSTPTR - German American Legion of St. Peter
GAR - Grand Army of the Republic
GLAUM - Grand Lodge Ancient Order of Mysteries-Masonic Order
GUOOF - Grand United Order of Odd Fellows
IHSV - Red Cross of Constantine
IOI - Independent Order of Immaculate...**

Notice in the list above, "GAR". Grand Army of the Republic. Isn't that what Emporer Palpatine called his new Clone Army in StarWars Episode II? A "Grand Army of the Republic". Yup. Thought so.

Let The Sunshine ...?

First a quick update. No, not a slacker's update. I know that I haven't blogged in a while- Sorry. But I have been a bit busy. I took a brief vacation. Had a great time. I did North Georgia and Atlanta. The weather wasn't great, but it was cool. I also did a little project.
All my pals know I've been doing an informal study for months on how prevalent sun images and sun worship concepts are in our society. Any way, as I drove around Atlanta and the environs this week, I kept seeing more and more examples of thes sun images. So I quit gawking and started taking pictures instead. You might be suprised just how surrounded we are by representations of the sun. Check out what I saw:
The SunTrust bank, BP petroleum, and even Frito Lay.

An interesting note: you'll find sun logos at almost any major corporation that does busisness with the public. There were plenty that I saw that I won't try to show here. The new BurgerKing logo is the Burger King text superimposed on top of a bright yellow sun. Shell Oil has a new gas additive they call ' V-Power'. The symbol for that is a whirling sun. There's even a big, glossy new shopping and living center in Atlanta called Atlantic Station. Their logo is a great circle with a star in the middle. Star? Pentagram? Hmmm. There are bunches more. See how many you can find when you go out. It will suprise you. Also, none of these logos existed before the year 2000. Not in their 'Sun' form. All fascinating to think about. It may even cause you to ask- 'What is the connection between major corporations and their images of the sun?' That, Detective, is the right question.

The Eides of March

Speaking of weird weird stuff- did you hear about the shootings at Denny's this week? Three seperate shootings in three days, at three completely different restaurants. I won't try to go into all the details. I've listed a pretty good synopsis of the events in a story I clipped from the KUTV website. The picture comes from KCAL.
Check it out:

ANAHEIM, Calif.- For the third time in less than three days, a gunman opened fire inside a Denny’s Restaurant in southern California on Friday. In this latest incident, a man was killed and another was wounded.

Police say the suspect walked into an Anaheim Denny’s at around 2:45 a.m., following a fight between two groups inside the restaurant. Two people were shot.

One victim died inside. The other was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive. Authorities say the incident does not appear to be gang-related.

The gunman escaped the scene and is currently wanted by Anaheim Police.

Friday’s was the latest in a string of shootings at the nationwide restaurant chain. Three people died Wednesday after a transient pulled two guns and opened fire inside of a Denny’s in Pismo Beach, Calif. He shot two men and a married couple before he took his own life.

Another shooting happened Thursday in Ontario, Calif., when a 37-year-old man was shot and killed in a Denny’s restaurant parking lot. This shooting also started after a fight. The gunman has not been caught in this case either.

Here are a few aspects that made the W-S o'meter alarm go off. First, the original shooting happened on Wednesday, March 15, the Eides of March. None of us who pays attention to seeming random acts of violence is suprised by this particular shooting. Most things that seem to be random acts of public violence, when they occour on signicant days like this, are anything but random ( if this is news to you, then you haven't even made it to first base yet, and much of this blog won't make sense to you. If you want to play along anyway, then try to keep up!)

So you begin with this first set of killings. By the way, the killer offed himself, as programmed killers often do. But then there's yet another Denny's shooting, and the shooter disappears. And then there's yet another shooting, again that shooter goes bye-bye! What are the odds? What are the odds? My Weird Stuff O'meter is ringing loudly now. There's no way these things are a coincidence. Maybe three in 6 months. Maybe. But not THREE shootings in THREE days at the same friggin' restaurant chain. And with no gunmen in custody to question. Coincidence just doesn't work here.
At the risk of being too completely flip here, I will mention that what I find most significant is that the initial attack took place on the 15th, which is the traditional Eides of March. It may not mean much to you, but there are people to whom it means a great deal. If those people are powerful, devoted to occult observances, and prone to make mischief, then the Eides of March is one heck of a good time to do a project. Believe that or don't, but here you have a bizarre string of killings which started on this particular day, and the violence at the restaurants continues on for a total of three , yeah , three days. That points to planning, and the commission of murders with a pattern and purpose.
Okay. What is the purpose then? I have a pretty strong hunch. If you really want to know, ask me and I'll tell you. Right now I've got to turn this thing off.

Meter-Made

Just for future reference, I'm going to let you in on a little device I've been using for a while.
Every so often I'll come across something that is so strange or hard to believe, or sometimes so intriguing, that I can hardly describe it. When I'm at that kind of loss, I pull out a tool I call the Weird-Stuff-O'meter. Yeah. It measures really, really weird, strange stuff. You can figure how it works. If something's crazy weird, it registers on the meter.
I've posted a picture along with this description. It consists of a simple hand held unit which features an LCD display. Attached are two wired probes. When you encounter the weird object, you stick the probes....
Never mind. It doesn't matter where you stick 'em right now. All you need to know is that when something's eceptionally weird the display flashes with the corresponding number, 1-10. 1 being only midly weird. 5 through 7, pret-ty darn weird ( like those Burger King commercials where the King, wearing a vaguely psychotic looking mask, offers you a 1 thousand calorie sausage sandwich )
Anything above 7 takes us into the realm of the VERY weird ( like Dick Chaney's convoluted tale of how he accidentally managed to shoot his good friend in the face while hunting for quail. From a car.) Anything above an 8.5 and the meter begins to flash and an audible alarm sounds. If it gets too weird, the numbers on the display will dissapear altogether. Once, just once, the strangeness got so intense, the numbers vanished, to be replaced by a flashing
" T-I-L-T ". I'll have to tell you that story some time. If it should happen again, I'll let you know.

Movie, Movie

What's in a movie? Hopefully it' s something that makes you think while you're being entertained. I do have a personal list of favorite movies. Maybe I'll post them soon. For now though, I think this one fits the forum because of its subject matter. Unfortunately There's nothing new about governments pulling the wool over people's eyes. Trouble comes when the people begin to like it. Oops, I've said to much..
The movie V for Vendetta touches on subjects like this with a sometimes heavy hand. The hero of this film puts it thus: "People should not fear their governments. Governments should fear their people!" A good friend of mine has graced us with a review. Enjoy.








V for Vendetta
Warner Bros. Pictures


--Lonie Haynes for The Urbanite

A dystopian society is one characterized by an authoritarian, fascist or some other type of oppressive government—the very opposite of a utopian society. It is within this setting that the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry—known most reverently for the Matrix movies—frame this well crafted and eerily engrossing film. James McTeigue has meticulously adapted the movie from the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

The story is sweepingly set against the future—very near future—landscape of a totalitarian British government, where inflation and unemployment are rampant, numerous citizens go without basic necessities, the vast wealth of the nation is unequally divided and the government controls the machines of the state—sound familiar?
The action begins as a young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued from the clutches of the state police, by a ‘masked man’ known only as ‘V’. Hugo Weaving plays the dynamic and sometimes frightening V brilliantly.
Weaving creates a multidimensional character that lauds the rights of the proletariat and is eager to overthrow the government. After rescuing Evey he ultimately employs her in his grand crusade to bring justice and liberty back to society. V believes that the state, while pretending to protect the citizens from terrorism, has itself become the greatest terrorist.

Weaving’s dark vigilante is a lone voice, crying out in a world of uncertainty. He’s no superhero; no angel. Still, he does have some pretty damn magical devices and a gift for understanding human psychology that do, at times, make him seem supernatural. And it is the utilization of his talents, coupled with Evey’s help that make the story believable, intelligent and thrilling.

What makes this film unique among other films in this genre (dystopian futures) is those other films drape themselves heavily in a world of Sci-Fi trappings and superhero antics. (Think Aeon Flux and UltraViolet) But the brilliance of this film is in the thin veneer that lies between this story—and our own reality. In fact this film presents a world that so closely resembles the headlines of today that it is often disconcerting.

There’s even more to like here, such as the undeniable attraction between ‘V’ and Evey. Both are set on a dual quest for justice, a quest that draws you ever deeper into the story.

In addition to a brilliant story line, the producers have created an almost tangible world of darkness, fear and depravity—a feast for the senses.

But most importantly they have opened a cinematic forum for intelligent moral thinking—nes’t pas’? Do you feel me? If you are expecting Kung Fu, gun battles and sword play reminiscent of the Matrix; you won’t find it here—granted there are a few butt-kick fight scenes. Ultimately though, what you have is a wonderfully thought provoking story that is dark, taut and compelling. Yes, ‘V’ stands for Vendetta, but it could just as easily be called C for Catalyst, or P for Provocateur, who is determined to shift the political paradigm of society.

Written In Stone

While out and about in Nashville, Tennessee with a friend recently, we took a moment to visit a local cemetary. That sounds weird off the top, so I'll explain.
The attraction of this place is that it's very old and contains a large number of civil war era graves and markers. In fact that's what caused us to go there in the first place. We'd driven past on another errand. But from the road we noticed what looked like very unusual monument stones. Now both my friend and I are history buffs, and we're also interested in historic articles connected with Freemasonry. The giant obelisks on the the graves here are quite remarkable. it's not an exageration to say that some of them are as high as 30 feet tall. That's what we first got out of our car to get a closer look at. But those psuedo-Egyptian monuments paled in comparison to what next caught our eye.
The real clincher of our visit would be the civil war era grave of a man who'd had himself buried inside a pyramid. Yeah. Buried inside a pyramid. Its base is about 13 x 13 square, and it might be 10 or 11 feet tall ( these are estimations ) But this is a pretty remarkable sight.
First, there are very few average citizens who'd ask that they be buried under a pyramid of any kind. So it seems clear to my friend and me, that the man buried here, one Major Eugene C. Lewis ( 1847 - 1917 ) Wasn't just an average citizen. He was a wealthy freemason. And not just that, but he was a serious, deep, hard-core freemason. One very much engaged and interested in all the serious esoteric aspects. You just don't see this stuff every day. At the top of this entry is a shot of the triangular plaque on the tomb.

Devotion to those sun-worship concepts of inner Freemasonry is still more evident when you get a look at the tomb head-on. The idea seems to be to rebuild the Egyptian tomb ideal in miniature.
Just one more illustration to get to my point. When you stand at the back of this pyramid, and gaze out into the open field of the cemetery, you're greeted by a forest of obelisks. They're evident in various sizes throughout the enormous graveyard. It raises a question. What kind of nineteenth century American Patriot has himself buried under and ancient Egyptian Pyramid? Why would a stalwart, upstanding white American place an obelisk, the sign of the Egyptian Sun God, over his grave?

The answer of course, is that the monuments aren't about Nationalism at all. They're about religion. The religion that venerates the ancient Egyptian dieties of Osiris and Isis. The fact that the obelisk is meant to represent the Sun God's phallus drives the point home all the more.
The people buried here are unquestionably Americans. But are they Christians? I don't think so. Not as most common people understand Christianity
( the veneration of Christ, not Osiris ) And that's what I mean by the previous blog entry.

This whole graveyard episode is a very nice example to me, of how things and people who seem one way, may be just the opposite. Just as deep Freemasonry often hides under a facade of Christianity in America, so we see that much of what appears to be one thing in our society, is actally something else. That fact may not be obvious at first, but eventually, we begin to see the signs. And sometimes, as in our civil war graveyard, those signs are written in stone.

Through the Glass Darkly

It seems to me that there are at least two ways to view our modern world. Most of us take things at face value. We believe they're just what they appear to be. A tree is a tree. A car is a car. A city is a city. No more, no less. For most of us, that is the way we view nearly everything. We find comfort in that, and almost never question it.
And then there is the other way to look at such things. That is, to begin exploring the deeper aspects of things we find in everyday life. Doing this isn't nearly as comforting, but it can lead to some startling, and beneficial revelations.
It was only a few years ago that everyone thought a candied apple must be one of the finest treats around. And it was, till someone started researching a thing called Red Dye No.2 .

Not all deeper understanding points to something toxic or dangerous. But sometimes deeper understanding can lead us closer to the truth. In the 2004 Presidential election, Florida poll workers actually took votes cast in black neighborhoods, and threw those votes away. By the boxful. Doesn't make you feel good to know that, but it does shed light on the truth. And that's always good for us. Even if it doesn't leave us with a warm feeling.
I wouldn't say I always want to know the truth about everything. I'm not that brave. But there are certian things I'm very curious about. And I sure do want to know what's going on behind the facade. Maybe a place like this is a good venue to ask a few questions.

Not too hard to tell where I'm going, is it? ( my good friends even think I'm predictable. Oh well. ) So I'll spend the next couple of posts presenting things that may be of interest. A few tentative peeks behind the facade. Maybe we can catch a glimpse of the lady without her makeup. But don't say I didn't warn you!
Of course you're invited to share your thoughts too. Can't wait to get started.