Top Ten Synchromystic Books of 2012

"Words are animals, alive with a will of their own."

~ C.G. Jung

Synchromysticism is the drawing of links and connections in popular and personal culture (through breaking news, movies, music lyrics, literature, historical happenings, patterned behavior and esoteric knowledge), and the finding of connections and lexilinks between occult knowledge (i.e. secret societies, cults and rituals), politics, mass media, and more.

"What is not brought to consciousness, comes to us as fate."

~ C.G. Jung

Synchronicity, the name game, forteana, coincidence, and many other unique moments of our lives are also parts of the field of synchromysticism.

Synchromysticism is ''the art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the 

seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance.'' 

~ Jake Kotze

The following ten titles, in no specific order, are recommended as my top synchromystic selections of newly reprinted classic and new books appearing in 2012.

The Sync Book 2 

edited by Alan Abbadessa-Green (new 2012)

Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society

by Adam Parfrey and Craig Heimbichner (new 2012)

Zones of Strangeness: An Examination of Paranormal and UFO Hot Spots

by Peter A. McCue (new 2012)

Happy Trails to High Weirdness: A Conspiracy Theorist's Tour Guide 

by Adam Gorightly (new 2012)

The Other Side of Truth: The Paranormal, The Art of the Imagination, and the Human Condition 

by Paul Kimball (new 2012)

Soulmaking: Uncommon Paths to Self-Understanding 

by Michael Grosso (1997; new 2012 reprint)

Synchronicity: The Art of Coincidence, Choice, and Unlocking Your Mind 

by Kirby Surprise (new 2012)

Coincidence: a Matter of Chance - or Synchronicity? 

by Brian Inglis (1990; new 2012 reprint)

Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier

by Brad and Sherry Steiger (3rd Edition, new 2012)

Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form 

by Robert Guffey (new 2012)

"There's no coming to consciousness without pain."

~ C.G. Jung

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Arrow + Knives Used To Kill Three

Casper College in Wyoming was the site of the killing of two and a suicide in a morning of violence. An official says three people (two males, one female) are dead, including one faculty member, in what city officials say were attacks with a "sharp edged weapon" at the college and in a nearby neighborhood on the morning (9 am local time) of November 30, 2012, the Casper Star Tribune reported.

President Walt Nolte and city officials say a non-student suspect killed a faculty member in a classroom on the third floor of the Wold Physical Science Center and another victim elsewhere in Casper, and then committed suicide.According to the Star Tribune, Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said two were dead at the science center and another at a different location in Casper, but that location wasn't identified. Walsh said no suspects are at large and no one else was injured.

Police said the weapon used in the attack appeared to be a "bow and arrow type," according to NBC affiliate KCWY.

Casper College is a two-year community college in Wyoming's second-largest city. Casper, population 56,000, is about 250 miles northwest of Denver.

The town of Casper's name is due to the violence history locally. Native American attacks increased after the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in 1864, bringing more troops to the local Fort Caspar, which was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William O. Collins. In July 1865, Lieutenant Caspar Collins (the son of Colonel Collins) was killed near the post by a group of Indian warriors. Three months later the garrison was renamed Fort Caspar after Lieutenant Collins. In 1867, the troops were ordered to abandon Fort Caspar in favor of Fort Fetterman downstream on the North Platte along the Bozeman Trail. The reason why the town is named Casper, instead of Caspar honoring the memory of Fort Caspar and Lt. Caspar Collins, is due to a typo that occurred when the town's name was officially registered.

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Will Lunar Eclipse Bring Forth Bizarre Sports Behaviors Tonight?

What will happen during this "dark knight" of November 28th? Will the stronger than usual pull of the alignment of the moon, earth, and sun cause earthquakes and suicides?  Or a sports fan to go wild?

Or will it just be another opportunity for more debate about "lunacy"? Tonight's events (or Thursday's or Friday's, the effect can cause ripples) remain to be seen, so I am not giving away any spoilers.

Most media folks downplay the link between the strong tidal influences of full and new moons, but for those of us who have worked in the mental health field, caution is always the watchword.

It is a fact that "80 percent of nurses and 64 percent of doctors [believe] that the lunar cycle is a major player in mental health," as mentioned in the skeptical "Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 2012: November 28 Event Won't Bring Out 'Lunatics'."

As that article notes,

During the Nov. 28 lunar eclipse the full moon will pass into the hazy outer edge (penumbra) of Earth's shadow. This subtle shadow across the moon's surface will be visible in East Asia, Australia, Hawaii and Alaska, with possible views at moonset and moonrise for the western United States and parts of Europe and Africa.

While using the ridicule curtain to counter the "lunacy" thoughts that are reflective of full and new moon experiences of front line workers, with jokes about werewolves, some notes are shared about non-human animals.

A 2007 study at Colorado State University found that veterinary ER visits by cats and dogs went up on full-moon nights. It's possible that owners and their pets simply spend more time outside on nights when the moon is bright, increasing the risk of injury, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Perhaps for similar reasons, a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2000 found that emergency-room admissions for animal bites went up at one hospital on nights with full moons, but studies in other places have failed to find a similar link.

But I wonder if people are ignoring the more bizarre human "tidal effects" that are caused by the phrases of the moon. When I was working with suicidal folks, I tracked the suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. I certainly noticed an increase around the new and full moons. Earthquakes seem to be experienced more intensively by humans too. And pets do go missing around these times.

However, it may be the strangest human behaviors that are missing our notice, because they are so rare and so, seemingly, out of character for Homo sapiens.

The combination of the moon-related behaviors and the copycat effect sometimes does happen.

Here's an example from The Copycat Effect (2004):

It was a typical fall Thursday night at the ballgame in Chicago. The date was September 19, 2002, and the crowd was excited to see the White Sox take on the out-of-towners, the Kansas City Royals. But then something happened in the game that would turn into a repeating copycat cycle, bringing a fear of “terrorism” to the very fields of dreams.

Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa was calmly watching home plate. During the ninth inning of a game that had no bearing on the playoffs, Gamboa took a short trip into hell. He didn’t know what hit him. Two men, a father and his juvenile son, both shirtless, were on top of Gamboa, punching away at him and slamming him to the ground. The 54-year-old coach told ESPN he felt like a “football team” had hit him. Soon Gamboa’s teammates, as well as the umpires and the White Sox team, piled on to get the attackers off. Security then quickly moved in. Royals’ first baseman Mike Sweeney told ESPN: “If it wasn't for them, we'd probably still be beating on those guys.”

Gamboa walked off the field to a standing ovation from the crowd at Comiskey Park, where the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 2-1. Gamboa escaped with only a few cuts and a bruised cheek (though a year later he suffered partial hearing damage in his right ear and had to be moved to the bullpen), but the attack was a shock to Major League Baseball. A folded-up pocketknife was found on the ground near the scene, and White Sox outfielder Aaron Rowand said he saw it slip out of one of the attacker’s pockets.

Attacks against sports figures by fans are rare. The most notorious came when tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan in 1993 during a match in Hamburg, Germany. In 1995, at Wrigley Field, a 27-year-old bond trader who ran out of the stands charged Cubs reliever Randy Myers. Myers saw the man coming, dropped his glove and knocked him down with his forearm. In 1999, a 23-year-old fan attacked Houston right fielder Bill Spiers at Milwaukee. Spiers ended up with a welt under his left eye, a bloody nose and whiplash.

“It's sad and disturbing, very disturbing,” said general manager Kenny Williams, who apologized to Gamboa and the Royals after the game. “Words don't express the sorrow when you look at a man and he's got blood on his face. All he was doing was coaching first base.”

Then less than a year later came the copycat incident. During the night of April 15, 2003, fans ran on the field during a White Sox game with the Royals in Chicago. According to the Associated Press, the first fan came out before the top of the seventh inning, while the second one ran on to the field to start the bottom half of the inning before he was nailed in center field by security. Another fan raced toward the infield minutes later, following a strike fired by left-handed reliever Kelly Wunsch as he was facing Raul Ibanez with the bases loaded, two outs and the White Sox leading by one run.

Then in the ninth inning, a fan attacked first base umpire Laz Diaz, who stood near where Gamboa had been attacked in the ninth inning of that September 2002 game, also between the Royals and White Sox. The field has been renamed U.S. Cellular Field, but the location was the same. Soon, Royals, security, White Sox, and MLB umpires were wrestling the attacker to the ground, in an eerie repeat of the previous year.

“When the guy ran on the field and came after the umpire, it did bring back memories of last year (with Gamboa),” said White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko to ESPN shortly after the second attack in two years. “I don’t know how you prevent it, unless you have someone every inch of the way.”

The reality of copycat behavior of this kind has hit baseball hard. Security has been increased and improved since the 2002 season, with 60-to-70 police officers at the stadium in Chicago, for example. But it is a well-known fact that the security force will always be outnumbered, even on nights of low attendance.

White Sox veteran Frank Thomas mentioned that the actions could have had something to do with the full moon. Billy Koch, who blew the save in the ninth with four runs, joked, tongue in cheek, how the last fan should have waited a few batters to charge him. But more seriously, White Sox manager Jerry Manuel and Royals manager Tony Pena expressed concern and even some fear over the growing number of incidents. “It’s kind of a sad commentary for Chicago, at least our ballpark,” Manuel told reporter Scott Merkin at MLB.com. “I don’t believe it reflects who we are as Chicago people. It’s unfortunate that it happened, and unfortunate that it happened in Chicago when Kansas City comes to town.”

Pena commented, also to reporter Merkin: “There’s no question I was concerned. That’s what I told the umpire, ‘How can I know my players will be safe or not?’”

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GE Forgets About Skynet

The Thanksgiving Day 2012 GE television commercial creators have failed to remember the downside of having machines become too intelligent, too brilliant.

In the Terminator films, Skynet is shown as a highly advanced artificial intelligence. After Skynet became self-aware, it saw humanity as a threat to its existence and decided to trigger a nuclear holocaust and send forth an army of Terminators against Homo sapiens.

Ah, so much for #BrilliantMachines.

###

Hat tip to Caleb.

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Masonic Yeti

How might Freemasonry merge with hominology and cryptozoology, now and then?

I was involved in executively producing a cryptozoological event on November 15th, at the Grand Lodge on East 23rd and 24th Streets, New York City. For more details and photos, see here and here.

Specifically, on this blog, I wanted to share the event manager and host, ICM's Assistant Director Jeff Meuse's images, captured of the Yeti in the Grand Hall.

The Yeti. The Grand Lodge Hall. The Freemasons. Dos Equis.

Plus, this is artist Lee Murphy's created Sasquatch head.

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Red Dawn Is Coming

This Thanksgiving, the Fight begins at Dawn.

What will happen with this new film's opening on Wednesday, November 21, 2012? What sites of significance are tied to this movie? Products? Names?

Anonymous left the following comment on my earlier "Red Dawn" posting: "The original trailer, on the laserdisc release, includes a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonald's where enemy soldiers are eating. The scene does not appear in the final cut, and was likely removed due to a mass murder at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, CA, weeks before the film opened."

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

The San Ysidro McDonald's event was a mass shooting that took place on July 18, 1984, at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California. James Oliver Huberty (born October 11, 1942, Canton, Ohio) shot and killed 21 people (including five children) and injured 19 others.

First of all, for those who weren't alive then, the images above and below give you some idea of the Columbine-like wall-to-wall nature of the coverage. The media seized this reality form of broadcasting in 1963, when the television networks were made aware they could increase ratings as they covered the JFK assassination for four straight days in November.

How specific were the graphic images that were published at the time? One lasting picture was the following one. It showed Omarr Hernandez lying next to his bicycle on July 18, 1984. The photo would become a symbol of the "devastating McDonald’s massacre in 1984." The 11-year old boy was among the victims killed by the shooter. Photograph was captured by Barry Fitzsimmons.

This is a real boy. This is a real victim. His family and friends were forever changed by the event.

At the time it was released, Red Dawn (1984) was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute (Source). The DVD Special Edition (2007) includes an on-screen "Carnage Counter" in a bizarre nod to this.

It is worthy of noting that the first person killed in Red Dawn (1984) was the African-American teacher, Mr. Teasdale, played by former NFL player Frank McRae This link probably goes back to first person killed in American Revolution was an African-American, Crispus Attucks. Who is the first individual killed in Red Dawn (2012)?

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

Certainly, the San Ysidro-McDonald's event did change the Red Dawn that would be seen in 1984. It appears the filmmakers made a correct decision in changing the film, at least regarding the McDonald's "trigger" imagery.

Red Dawn (1984) was released on August 10, 1984.

San Ysidro, California, shooting site, 1984.

Red Dawn, deleted scene, 1984.

The new Red Dawn movie does not appear to have a "Colonel Ernesto Bella" in it, as in the 1984 version. "Bella" was played by Ron O'Neal (who became most famous as "Super Fly" in the movie of the same name, 1972, and then played minor roles, like "Charles Zurich" in Knight Rider's "Sky Knight" episode, 1985). O'Neal died in 2004.

Enki, who saw an early screening of Red Dawn (2012), writes: "I do not have much to report in the sync department, except for the fact that the new film takes place in Spokane, Washington instead of Colorado, and as Michael noted, Simon Bolivar is considered to be the George Washington of South America. The school shooting from the first film is absent from the remake, which was probably a no-brainer decision on the part of the filmmakers, and another memorable and unsettling scene from the original was altered to be less disturbing."

But recent copycat events are giving a bit of a pause. Enki forwards this, today: "Lammers allegedly planned to shoot up the B&B Bolivar Cinema 5, which is located on Bolivar's East Aldrich Road. Aldrich = old or wise ruler, which makes me think of a king. The accidental gun discharge took place at king-resonating Regal Cinemas on Sanguinetti Road in Sonora. Sanguinetti = little blood. The King-Kill current I was sensing seems to be coming to the surface. Might the next red dawn event be a political assassination?"

Needless to say, few of us have to be reminded that November 22nd is the anniversary of the JFK assassination.

What do you notice in this film?

One thing is certain. There is a new red dawn coming.

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For the links to older postings about 

Colorado's Aurora's red dawn symbolism, please see also:

Red Dawn 2012

Red Dawn Again

Red Dawn

Recent interviews, about the Aurora shootings:

WGN - Mike McConnell: Loren Coleman

The Corbett Report: The Copycat Effect with Loren Coleman

Binnall of America: Loren Coleman and Bruce Rux

Talk Shoe - 42 Minutes: Loren Coleman

Red Ice Creations: Loren Coleman

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)

The enemy takes over McDonalds, 1984.
What product placements are in the new 2012 version of Red Dawn?
Be alert: Look for Pepsi and Subway.

Source.

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Saucer Smear's James W. Moseley Dies

Fortean friend, ufology humorist, and writer James W. Moseley, 81, died Friday night, November 16, 2012. He passed away at a Key West, Florida, hospital, several months after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

Upon hearing of the death of Moseley, Anomalist Books publisher and editor Patrick Huyghe said: "He was one of the last remaining old timers from the golden age of flying saucers. Goodbye, Jim."

I, Loren Coleman, first met James W. Moseley ("Jim" to his friends) when he, John Keel, and I were speaking at a Fortfest in the D.C. area, in 1973. The most vivid memory I have of that time is sitting with these two gentlemen in the dark and shabby lobby of a motel, listening to the foremost scholars of ufology decide what they would do that evening. I recall politely excusing myself to finetune my next day's presentation, as they skipped off, by foot, across the multilane highway, to visit a nearby striptease joint. And thus I was introduced to the braintrust of ufology, and knew what the end would look like - some sort of cosmic mix of humor and nudity galore!

For years, according to only a few readers, Moseley too frequently posted photographs of large-breasted women in his humorous ufology newsletter, Saucer Smear, confusing people who wished to claim that Moseley was gay, even though he said he was not (for he came from a generation of individuals who might remain closeted for years).

Did it matter what people thought? Ufology historian and Moseley friend Jerome Clark wrote me: "Well, it did matter. It mattered to Jim, who said he was not gay and who did not like it when people spread such speculation."

But it went beyond breasts: In the May 10, 2004, issue of Saucer Smear, Moseley highlighted the republishing of a book on three alien monsters raping a woman named Barbara Turner in her bedroom. 

Actually, it was quite obvious. Moseley was a comic, extremely interested sex, and loved to be the center-of-attention. Certainly, his lifestyle was secretive to some. For almost thirty years, Moseley lived in Florida. 

Moseley with a large poster of marine treasure hunter Mel Fisher.

In 1984, Moseley established an antiques store in Key West, Florida. He also made money in real estate. In 1992, Moseley donated his Peruvian material to the Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History, located in Dania, Florida, where it is on permanent display.

James Moseley was a pivotal chronicler of a now-famed mystery that issued from his interest in ancient Peruvian artifacts. It is to be recalled that the Nazca Lines were first discovered by the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe, who spotted them when hiking through the foothills in 1927. He discussed them at a conference in Lima in 1939. Maria Reiche, a German-born mathematician and archaeologist, first studied and set out to preserve the Nazca Lines in 1940. Paul Kosok, a historian from Long Island University, is credited as the first scholar to seriously study the Nazca Lines in the USA, on site in Peru, in 1940-41. But it was Moseley who first wrote about the Nazca Lines as an intriguing Fortean phenomena in Fate Magazine, in October 1955, suggesting a mysterious origin, long before they interested alternative writers such as Erich von Däniken (1968), Henri Stierlin (1983) and Gerald Hawkins (1990).

Moseley co-wrote a memoir with Karl T. Pflock, entitled Shockingly Close to the Truth! (2002), telling many of his own "secrets." He decided to reveal much about himself, but for the decade after its publication, few were able to decipher which of his "facts" were jokes and which were reality.

James W. Moseley, who was born on August 4, 1931 in New York City, was more than merely an American ufologist, that's for certain.

General biographical details about Moseley include the following:

Over his career, he has exposed UFO hoaxers and has engineered hoaxes of his own. He is known for the newsletter Saucer Smear.
Moseley was the son of U.S. Army Major General George Van Horn Moseley. Moseley attended Princeton University for two years before dropping out. He became interested in UFOs following the 1947 claims of pilot Kenneth Arnold, but his interest deepened following the 1948 death of U.S. Air Force pilot Thomas Mantell, in pursuit of a UFO.
In July, 1954, Moseley co-founded Saucer News, a periodical known for its unorthodox, "freewheeling" (Clark, 2002) style. Saucer News only occasionally featured serious UFO research; Moseley was among the first to publicize evidence against the claims of leading "contactee" George Adamski. In 1953 he investigated the Ralph Horton flying saucer crash.
Saucer News was sold to Gray Barker in 1968. Moseley became a regular lecturer on UFOs for several years and organized an annual convention. In 1970, he founded a newsletter that went by several titles until Moseley settled on Saucer Smear in 1981. He produce[d] the newsletter irregularly, and [sold] pdf issues and subscriptions from his site. Saucer Smear typically ha[d] a joking, gossipy tone.

Moseley report[ed] (Story, 1980; Clark, 2002) that he has accepted, then rejected, a number of explanations for UFOs. In roughly chronological order, he considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis; a secret weapon/aircraft hypothesis, psychic/supernatural/interdimensional hypotheses in the vein of John Keel or Jacques Vallee; deep skepticism; and agnosticism. According to Jerome Clark, he ha[d] "entertained just about every view it is possible to hold about UFOs, without ever managing to say anything especially interesting or memorable about any of them." (Clark 2005). Source.

Of course, parts of Moseley's life were often ignored in online mainstream bio profiles. One hoax that he did acknowledge was the Adamski-involved Straith hoax letter. Moseley was quoted by Jerome Clark as stating that he committed multiple UFO "hoaxes." But which ones and how many?

Moseley often appeared on the old Long John Nebel radio program.

Moseley had a close relationship with many founding figures in ufology. For example, Moseley often called early "flying saucer author" Gray Barker, his closest friend. Moseley noted in his Shockingly Close to the Truth, that Barker died on December 6, 1984, "after a long series of illnesses" in a Charleston, West Virginia, hospital. But the cause was somewhat mysterious and the diagnosis was always unclear. Moseley wrote that "the more or less simultaneous failure of various organs, due most probably to AIDS (though it was not diagnosed as such in those days)" killed Barker. In filmmaker Ralph Coon's documentary about Barker, Whispers from Space, the Clarksburg investigator is depicted as a closeted gay man. Barker was only 59 when he died. Moseley appeared in the documentary, discussing their friendship. The fact that Moseley was straight, and he could have a gay friend, of course, is understood today, but less so in their generation.

Moseley's Saucer Smear was full of news, as well as humor. He showed loyalty to his associates, and included notices to help his friends. For instance, in 2007 and 2008, Moseley carried a call for donations to be given for the continued development of the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Goodbye, indeed. There goes another old friend many of us shall miss.

James W. Moseley, 2007.

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Thanks to Gene Steinberg, Larry W. Bryant, and especially Patrick Huyghe for the sad news.

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Bolivar, Breaking Dawn, Red Dawn, Llamas, and Lammers

The Bolivar man had purchased tickets to the Sunday screening of the new Twilight movie, with the express purpose of shooting up the movie theater, said authorities.

Polk is a power name, and it is in Polk Country, Missouri, where this possible new movie violence almost occurred. See more about the past events in Polk County, Arkansas, here.

If it was not for an alert mother contacting the police, a tragedy might be what we would be reading about now.

Summarizing what local media reported,

Blaec Lammers, 20, of Bolivar, is charged with first-degree assault, making a terroristic threat and armed criminal action. He was jailed in Polk County on $500,000 bond....
His mother contacted authorities Thursday, saying she worried that with this weekend's opening of the final film in the popular Vampire movie series, her son "may have intentions of shooting people at the movie," police wrote in the probable cause statement.
She said she thought the weapons — two assault rifles and hundreds of bullets — resembled those used by a gunman who opened fire inside a theater in Aurora, Colo., during the latest Batman movie in July. That attack killed 12 people.
Lammers was questioned Thursday afternoon and told authorities he bought tickets to a Sunday Twilight screening in Bolivar and planned to shoot people inside the theater. The town of roughly 10,000 people is about 130 miles southeast of Kansas City.

According to the probable cause statement, Lammers also planned to "just start shooting people at random" at a Walmart store less than a mile away. He said he'd purchased two assault rifles and 400 rounds of ammunition, and if he ran out of bullets, he would "just break the glass where the ammunition is being stored and get some more and keep shooting until police arrived," investigators wrote.
Lammers stated he wanted to stab a Walmart employee to death and followed an employee around a Walmart store before officers got involved in 2009, according to police.
When asked about recent shootings in the news, Lammers told police "he had a lot in common with the people that have been involved in those shootings," the probable cause statement said. Investigators also wrote that Lammers said he "was quiet, kind of a loner, had recently purchased firearms and didn't tell anybody about it, and had homicidal thoughts." Times-Union

Lammers was approached at the Sonic Drive-In at 404 South Springfield Avenue, Bolivar, Missouri, and asked to come to police headquarters for questioning. It was there, while being interviewed, that he confirmed his plot.

Bolivar is of Polish and Spanish origins, and means "mighty, warlike." The city of Bolivar, Missouri, was named for Bolivar, Tennessee, home to many of the original Bolivar, Missouri settlers, and like that city its name is pronounced to rhyme with Oliver. Bolivar is named after the South American historical figure, Simón Bolívar, who was nicknamed El Libertador (The Liberator).

Correspondent Enki King writes: "A major sync hit is the would-be shooter's first name, Blaec, which is an English name meaning black or white. His surname, Lammers, derives from the village of Lamas or Lammas in Norfolk. James Holmes received the nickname 'The Llama' after submitting a photo [shown above] of himself feeding a llama with his university application."

Llama en la plaza de Bolivar

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Enki has given me permission to post tonight the following essay that he shared with me at 8:01 am on November 15th:

An Alchemical Dawn

Given the intensity of the synchromystic shock waves that have reverberated from the July mass shootings at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado (Colorado = red, Aurora = dawn), perhaps further analysis is in order as the release date of the new Red Dawn motion picture approaches. The fact that another “Dawn” film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, opens less than a week before Red Dawn is scheduled to hit screens seems significant, and provides a place to start.

Dawn = Aurora, and Aurora has repeatedly shown up in syncs since the Colorado shooting tragedy. (E.g., I noticed that Florida's Joker copycat Christopher Alex Sides' former residence was 1802 Aurora Park Circle, and I discovered shortly before a mass shooting at a spa in Wisconsin that there is a spa at the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes called The Aurora.) Interestingly, Aurora repeatedly shows up elsewhere - in alchemical literature. As Jesus Cora Alonso notes in “'This dream is all amiss interpreted': Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's Alchemical Tragedy”:

Dawn, aurora in Latin, symbolises the production of the red tincture or Philosopher's Stone in several treatises throughout the history of alchemy, for instance in the 13th century Aurora consurgens attributed to Thomas Aquinas, Gerhard Dorn's Aurora philosophorum (c. 1565), Henri de Linthaut's L'Aurore and L'Ami de l'aurore (early 17th century MSS, published in 1978, see Linthaut 1978) or Paracelsus's (attrib.) Paracelsus His Aurora, & Treasure of the Philosophers (1659).

The alchemical process can be broken down into three major processes: nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness), and rubedo (redness). Three films, three alchemical workings. It is time to dig for syncs.

Nigredo, the initial stage of the alchemical process, resonates with The Dark Knight Rises. The alchemist begins his self-transformation at this point, and encounters a long dark night (Knight) of the soul. Alchemists associate the raven with nigredo, but a bat would seem to be an appropriate stand-in.

In this stage, the inner fire is kindled by the application of external fire. This is analogous to the initial stage of Eastern mystical work, when the kundalini energy is activated and begins its ascent.

“The fire rises!” - Bane

It is worth noting that James Holmes' middle name, Eagan, means “fiery,” and that a deadly fire engulfed a building about 100 yards from Holmes' apartment a few weeks after the theater shooting.

Albedo (whiteness) is the second major stage of the alchemist's Great Work. In this stage, male and female are united, and the hermaphroditic nature of man is recognized. This certainly resonates with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, as in the months leading up to the film's release, Twilight's celebrity couple Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson broke up and reunited into, as the gossip mags say, “Robsten.” The whiteness of albedo is reinforced by the pasty white complexions of the vampire characters, and the synchromistically significant fact that Kristen Stewart recently portrayed Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman. In an interview, Snow White director Rupert Sanders, with whom it appears Stewart had a brief affair (a story that shared headlines with the Aurora shooting in July), had this to say about Stewart:

“She's incredibly spirited and very kind of wild and 

also she's got this kind of alchemy to her.”

Alchemists associated the swan with albedo. In the Twilight films, Kristen Stewart plays a character named Bella Swan. Also associated with albedo is the Roman goddess Aurora.

The third and final alchemical stage is rubedo, the reddening process which is represented by the phoenix, and this phase is associated with resurrection. While The Dark Knight Rises and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 are the final films in their franchises, Red Dawn is a remake, or resurrection if you will, of a 1984 film with the same title. In both versions, communist “Reds” invade the United States. Interestingly, the original film featured a character called Colonel Bella, a Cuban officer, and the remake stars Chris Hemsworth, who starred with Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman.

“Red sky at morning [red dawn], sailor take warning...” 

- Nautical rule of thumb for forecasting bad weather

“The night [Knight] is darkest just before the dawn. 

And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” 

- Harvey Dent

“There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.” 

- Selina Kyle

Loren Coleman defines a “red dawn event” as “a milestone manifestation of unfathomable future dimensions.” The Aurora tragedy was one. Might we see others when the Aurora-resonating Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and Red Dawn are released?

The 2012 release of Red Dawn is scheduled for November 21. This date will mark the 92nd anniversary of one of Ireland's “Bloody Sundays,” which certainly seems ominous. It will also be the birthday of rodeo champion Larry Mahan, who recorded the 1976 album Larry Mahan, King of the Rodeo. Several tracks stand out as being significant. The first song, “Freckled Face and Pretty Ribbons,” resonates with Aurora, Colorado. (Freckles are associated with red hair, and James Holmes dyed his hair red before the attack; a bald “woman in a red dress” (who I have reason to believe was a man in drag, but as to say this individual is highly litigious would be an understatement, I will not mention his name) appeared at a James Holmes hearing with a spool of blue ribbon.) Track eight is the spa-resonating “Rosie's Palace of Pure Love and Fingertip Massage.” The Joker comes to mind with the album's final song, “Ha Ha.” As November 21 is the 92nd anniversary of a “Bloody Sunday,” synchromystic “logic” dictates taking a close look at tracks nine and two. These are “Smokey Mountain Cowboy” and “There's More to a Cowboy,” respectively, and the repeating theme marks a direct sync hit.

As the symbolic alchemical fire rose this year, and as gunfire rang out across the land, one lonesome cowboy gazed down from on high upon the blood-soaked earth. That is, until his accidental immolation transformed him into a literal Smokey Cowboy. I am referring to the State Fair of Texas' iconic 52 foot statue Big Tex, which was destroyed by an electrical fire in October. The fire started in Big Tex's foot, and rose until the statue resembled a sacrificial Wicker Man. I discussed syncs between the Big Tex fire and the cult/occult film Wicker Man, James Holmes, and much more on Loren Coleman's Twilight Language blog.

Larry Mahan suggests that “There's More to a Cowboy.” There was more to Big Tex than met the eye in the 1983 comic book The Uncanny X-Men at the State Fair of Texas. In this issue (which was included as a supplement in the Dallas Times Herald), Big Tex saved the day by coming to life when no one was looking and (literally) kicked the supervillain Magneto's butt. This issue's main claim to fame is that it featured the one and only appearance of Eques, a mutant with the ability to transform into a winged centaur. Eques syncs with RFD TV's program Equestrian Nation, hosted by none other than Larry Mahan. X-Men name game syncs occur with Storm (a storm is coming), Wolverine (the guerrilla fighters in Red Dawn adopt the name “Wolverines”), and rubedo-resonating Phoenix. Also, the issue's editor-in-chief was James Shooter, which syncs quite closely with James Holmes.

The positions of Big Tex's arms and hands were peculiar. His right hand was raised to shoulder level, palm outward, as if implying one should stop. His left arm stretched out to his side, as though pointing. Big Tex almost gave the impression of directing traffic, of suggesting, “Stop, turn, and go this way.” Big Tex is now absent from Google Maps' Street View, but by analyzing old photos that have been placed online, I have come to believe that Big Tex was pointing southwest. I cannot help but wonder if he was somehow redirecting a hidden alchemical energy and pointing toward an upcoming red dawn event.

After spending some time map-gazing, I have only noticed one location to Big Tex's southwest that stands out – the Texas city of Coleman. As Loren Coleman predicted a Dark Knight-related event for July 20, coined the term “red dawn event,” and while traveling on cryptozoological business, happened to be in the vicinity of Big Tex around the time of the fire; Coleman, Texas seems like a place to watch.

Perhaps Big Tex's pointing southwest should be taken more generally. The reference could be to the regional area known as the American Southwest. If this be the case, likely states for an event might be Big Tex's home state of Texas or Colorado, which has seen more than its fair share of tragedy over the years. Phoenix, Arizona is situated within this region as well. The city of Phoenix and the mythological fiery bird after which it is named came up repeatedly in the sync community in September and October of this year, and the phoenix's association with rubedo, and hence Red Dawn, draws one's attention closer.

The new Twilight movie has a U.S. release date of November 16, with special late night shows on the 15th. Red Dawn's release date, as mentioned earlier, is November 21. These are key dates on which a red dawn event seem most likely, with the 21st being, my intuition tells me, the most probable; although I suppose any such event that syncs heavily with the people, places, things, and ideas discussed in this essay, and which occurs during Red Dawn's theatrical run, might still be considered a synchromystic hit.

Needless to say, nothing would please me more than being completely wrong.

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