Before
After
27 June 2001...August 2001
(24 pgs.)
NOTE: The entire graphic of this Issue before they were colorized by Jeremy Cox used to be here but they seem to have been removed :-(.
Bond of Union
TITLE:
Mercury rising is an astrological term, if you have
Mercury rising it means the planet Mercury was rising on the Eastern horizon
when you were born. Hermes is Mercury, messenger of the gods, a "language-god"
as he's called in this Issue. The phrase is used in order to introduce the
character of Mercury.
Another reference is to an increase in temperature.
Here is some information from NASA about the astronomy of the planet Mercury rising in the
sky. Mercury Rising is also the name of a website
dedicated to Sting which seems to have become defunct, a Bruce Willis movie and a type
of wine.
I doubt whether Alan Moore meant a reference to any of the
latter 3.
SYNOPSIS
The Stacia/Grace Brannagh version of Promethea manages to
destroy Jellyhead a new villain whilst in Hod Prometheas (5) and (6) get trapped
on a Moebius strip and meet up with a giant Hermes who explains about chess,
mathematics and language. He takes them to meet Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman
Spare and John Dee. Spare accompanies them for a short distance.
Back in our
world Promethea has overcome the entire Evil 8 and threatens to kill the
possessed mayor.
QUOTES:
“I figure, if the Painted Doll’s really dead this time, New
York’s got a science-villain opening.” – Jellyhead, pg 1
“I’m running things
now, and just between us, I’ve a teensy bit of a temper.” – Promethea 2(b), pg
3
“We’re in the mercurial realm of language, magic and intellect” –
Promethea(6), pg 4
“I guess that telling stories with pictures is the first
kind of written language.” – Promethea(6)
“Heh. Probably that’s why
Promehtea’s mostly appeared in comic books this last century. Gods used to be in
tapestries, but now they’re in strips.” – Barbara(5), pg. 5
“…language, it
shapes our whole consciousness, how we put ideas together. Even our concepts of
time. Before we had command of language, we couldn’t record events in the
past…”- Promethea(6)
“Yeah, well, an eloquent never forgets.” – Promethea(5),
pg. 5
“That must be one of those neural pathways you hear about.” –
Promethea(6)
“Yeah and I guess those are logic gates.” – Promethea(5), pg
6
“…all this math and language and reason…why do I feel there’s something
behind it that’s so intricate, it’s insane?” – Promethea(5)
“I guess it’s
where genius shades into madness.” – Promethea(6), pgs 8-9
“…a loop in space
I can understand…but a loop through time, that’s like infinity. That means it
goes on forever.” – Barbara(5), pg 9
“I’m suddenly getting the notion that
it’s what thoughts and ideas are made from. It’s ideoplasm or something.” –
Promethea(6), pg 10
“Well, well. The Promethea idea. I had you in …what? The
fifth century? I must say you’ve taken your time getting here.” – Hermes
Trismegistus, pg 12
“I think introductions are in order…though there’s seldom
order in introductions.” – Hermes Trismegisuts, pg 14
“Hod’s where all the
form seen in the lower spheres of dream and matter has its origins. All
perceivable form is made from this quicksilver stuff. We call it language.” –
Thoth, pg 15
“…that doesn’t matter here. It’s all a story, isn’t it? It’s all
fiction. All language. It can change like quicksilver.” – Hermes Trismegistus,
pg. 17
“Real life. Now there’s a fiction for you! What’s it made from?
Memories? Impressions? A sequence of pictures, a scattering of half-recalled
words…Disjointed hieroglyphic comic strips. Unwinding in our
recollection…language.” – Hermes Trismegistus, pg 17
“Mathematics is a
language, a human invention, a fiction…and yet it creates such elegant form. It
creates splendor. It creates truth.” – Hermes Trismegistus, pg 17
“What could
be more appropriate than for a language-god to manifest through the original
pictographic form of language.” – Hermes
“Uhh..so like what are you saying?”
– Promethea(6)
“What am I saying? I’m saying some fictions might have a real
god hiding beneath the surface of the page. I’m saying some fictions might be
alive…That’s what I’m saying.” – Hermes, pgs 16-17
“Knowing your tastes, I
imagine ‘mine’ would be the younger of these divinely escorted ladies?” –
Crowley, pg 19
“I wonder would it distress you greatly if I kissed your
behind?” – Crowley, pg 19
“That’s just Crowley’s way. Sometimes even I can’t
stand the chap. He does a lot of it to irritate Dee of course.” – Spare, pg
20
“I was a bloody good artist. Better magician, mind you.” – Spare, pg.
20
“They’re always falling. That’s the lightning-struck tower. It’s the
symbol of this 27th path. It’s every tower man or woman ever built.. a building,
a marriage, a career…that was meant to reach heaven. The lightning is what
teaches us humility.” – Spare, pgs 20-21
“Half paralyzed or not, I was still
the best bloody magician in London. And bugger Crowley if he says otherwise. No,
on second thoughts don’t , just to spite him.” – Spare, pg 21
NOTES & ANNOTATIONS
First the Barbelith
Underground commentary on this issue
Hod
Reality Creator Workbook
Series
Page 1: Our introduction to Jellyhead as the new science villain.
Statue on left hand side outside main panels is reminiscent of similar ones seen
in Top Ten.
Pages 2-3 top panel: Banking with a smile - a suitably ironic
motto.
Note sun symbols and snakes outside main panels.
Pages 4-5: Caduceus and snakes provide a nice frame for the
panels.
Page 4 Panel 3: Note Roman numeral for 8 (VIII) on the
floor.
Page 5 Panel 1: Thoth visible on the wall next to all the
hieroglyphics. Note Egyptian eye just above hieroglyphics.
Pages 6-7 top
panel: Magic square visible between two arches.
Magic Square of 8. An 8
by 8 grid where the rows and columns all add up to 260.
According to
JHW3 this is the full version of the magic square:
Yes that is a
real magic square that Alan came up with. Even though we can't see it in it's
entire form because of layout and perspective and shadow the numbers go like
this....
Mandrake definition from the Hyperdictionary:
(Bot.) A low plant
({Mandragora officinarum}) of the Nightshade family, having a fleshy root, often
forked, and supposed to resemble a man. It was therefore supposed to have animal
life, and to cry out when pulled up. All parts of the plant are strongly
narcotic. It is found in the Mediterranean region.
We actually have a 1694 edition of this book in the Rare Books section of the
library where I work. The full catalogue title is:
Mandragorias, seu,
Historia shahiludii : viz. ejusdem origo, antiquitas, ususque per totum Orientem
celeberrimus : speciatim prout usurpatur apud Arabes, Persas, Indos, &
Chinenses, cum harum gentium schematibus variis & curios, & militum
lusilium figuris inusitatis, in Occidente hactenùs ignotis : additis omnium
nominibus in dictarum gentium linguis, cum Sericis characteribus & eorundem
interpretationibus & sonis genuinis : de ludis Orientalium libri primi pars
prima, quae est Latina : accedunt de eodem Rabbi Abraham Abben-Ezrae elegans
poëma rythmicum : R. Bonsenior Abben-Jachiae facunda oratio prosaïca : liber
Deliciae regum prosâ, stylo puriore, per innominatum : de ludis Orientalium
libri primi pars 2da, quae est Hebraïca / horis succisivis olim congessit Thomas
Hyde ... ; praemittuntur de shahiludio prolegomena curiosa, & materiarum
elenchus. Published Oxonii : E. theatro Sheldoniano, 1694.
Here is a
translation of the Latin titles from TL
Quatuor evangelia et aCTa
apostolorum lingua Malaica, caracterIbus Europaeis (= The four gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles in Malayan language, 1677); EpisTola de mensuris et
ponderibus serum sive sinensium (Letters about the measures and weights of the
Seri or Chinese, 1688), appended to Bernard’s DE mensuris et ponderibus antiquis
(about old measures and weights); Abraham Peritsol(i or -is, genetive) -itinera
mundi (A. Peritsol's ways/travels of the world, 1691); and DE ludis orientalibus
libri II (two books on oriental plays, 1694).
Mandragorias, seu, Historia
shahiludii : The Mandragoriad or History of the Chess game, (the termination
-ias, -iadis, f., usually designates an epic poem, like "Ilias" = the epic poem
on Ilion (Troy), or "The Dunciad" (Alexander Pope, 1724) = The poem on
Dunce)
viz. ejusdem origo, antiquitas, ususque per totum Orientem
celeberrimus : that is to say its origin, age and use, most famous throughout
the whole orient
especially speciatim prout usurpatur apud Arabes, Persas,
Indos, & Chinenses, cum harum gentium schematibus variis & curiIs, &
militum lusilium figuris inusitatis, in Occidente hactenùs ignotis : especially
as it is exercised by the Arabs, Persians, Indians and Chinese, with the various
and curious (latin text must be "curiis", it's an Ablative) figures of those
peoples, and with unusual figures of the game-warriors which are unknown in the
West until now:
additis omnium nominibus in dictarum gentium linguis, cum
Sericis characteribus & eorundem interpretationibus & sonis genuinis :
together with the names of all (figures), in the languages of the foresaid
peoples, with Chineses characters and the translation of the same, and with the
true pronounciation:
de ludis Orientalium libri primi pars prima, quae est
Latina :
first part of the first book about the games of the Orientals,
which is in Latin
accedunt de eodem Rabbi Abraham Abben-Ezrae elegans poëma
rythmicum :
followed by an elegant rythmical poem of Rabbi A.A-Ezrae about
the same subjcet:
R. Bonsenior Abben-Jachiae facunda oratio prosaïca : an
eloquent speech in prose by R. Bonsenior Abben-Jachia, liber Deliciae regum
prosâ, stylo puriore, per innominatum :
the book "the pleasures of the
kings" in prose, in a very pure style, by an unknown author:
de ludis
Orientalium libri primi pars 2da, quae est Hebraïca /
second part of the
first book about the games of the Orientals, in Hebrew/
horis succisivis olim
congessit Thomas Hyde ... ; praemittuntur de shahiludio prolegomena curiosa,
& materiarum elenchus.
once collected in successive hours by Th. Hyde;
foregoing curious prolegomena on the chess game and a table of contents.
Published at Oxford by Sheldon 1694. Published Oxonii : E. theatro Sheldoniano,
1694.
Pages 8-9:
Compare these pages to the following Escher print:
Note that the top half of these pages has daytime with the sun and clouds
whilst the bottom half has nighttime with the moon and stars. The pyramids and
pillars on the top half are reflected in the bottom half. A face carved on one
the right hand side of this Moebius strip is actually a Pharaoh with a caduceus
on his brow.
Thanks to Claire Jordan for pointing this out.
Here are 3
different pages on how to create a möbious strip
One
Two
Three
The
lazy 8 figure it makes is also known as a lemniscate and is the
mathematical symbol for infinity.
These
pages contain:
14 conversation bubbles right way up
8 upside down
1
sideways
Making 23 bubbles in all.
Page 10 Panel 3:
It's what
thoughts and ideas are made of Ideoplasm.
Ideoplasm - Another term for
ectoplasm, a substance claimed to issue from the body of a materialization
medium in a vaporous or solid form, taking on the appearance of phantom forms or
limbs.The concept of ideoplasm stems from the investigations of such physical
researchers as the Frenchman Gustav Geley and conveys the additional idea that
the substance may be molded by the operators into any shape to express the idea
of the medium or of the sitters.
The following quote comes from a Rick Veitch
interview
"Alan had actually worked out a terminology. He saw ideas
being made of stuff called 'ideoplasm'. And he had a name for the dimension it
inhabited, Ideaspace. He came to it because he was teaching himself the
disciplines of magic: kabbalah and European traditions of consciousness,
referred to as magic. It was just a way of exploring these levels beyond time
and space."
Pages 12-13 top panel: Compare this with the following
Escher print:
for anyone interested in Escher I can recommend the following CD-Rom:
.jpg)
Pages 14-15 top panel:
A cynocephalus is a type of baboon. Here are some pictures.
Claire Jordan notes that it is incorrectly drawn.
Thoth's cynocephalus
is drawn as if it was an ape with a dog's head. In fact - as is clear from
Egyptian images and mummies of the beast - it was a hamadryas
baboon.
See this image for comparison:
A couple of quotes about the cynocephalus
Cynocephalus (Gr.). The
Egyptian Hapi. There was a notable difference between the ape-headed gods and
the "Cynocephalus" (Simia hamadryas), a dog-headed baboon from upper Egypt. The
latter, whose sacred city was Hermopolis, was sacred to the lunar deities and
Thoth-Hermes, hence an emblem of secret wisdom-as was Hanuman, the monkey-god of
India, and later, the elephant-headed Ganesha. The mission of the Cynocephalus
was to show the way for the Dead to the Seat of Judgment and Osiris, whereas the
ape-gods were all phallic. They are almost invariably found in a crouching
posture, holding on one hand the outa (the eye of Horus), and in the other the
sexual cross. Isis is seen sometimes riding on an ape, to designate the fall of
divine nature into generation.
Source
Manly
Hall's words are relevant to an interpretation of the companionship of fool and
dog. "Cynocephalus, the dog-headed ape," he writes, "was the Egyptian
hieroglyphic symbol of writing, and was closely associated with Thoth. Mercury
rules the astrological Third House of writing and communication. Cynocephalus is
symbolic of the moon and Thoth of the planet Mercury. Because of the ancient
belief that the moon followed Mercury about the heavens, the dog-ape was
described as the faithful companion of Thoth."
Source
Page 15, Panel 1: From TL:
Information
source
Wotan
The chief divinity of the Norse pantheon, the
foremost of the Aesir. Odin is a son of Bor and Bestla. He is called Alfadir,
Allfather, for he is indeed father of the gods. With Frigg he is the father of
Balder, Hod, and Hermod. He fathered Thor on the goddess Jord; and the giantess
Grid became the mother of Vidar.
Odin is a god of war and death, but also
the god of poetry and wisdom. He hung for nine days, pierced by his own spear,
on the world tree. Here he learned nine powerful songs, and eighteen runes. Odin
can make the dead speak to question the wisest amongst them. His hall in Asgard
is Valaskjalf ("shelf of the slain") where his throne Hlidskjalf is located.
From this throne he observes all that happens in the nine worlds. The tidings
are brought to him by his two raven Huginn and Muninn. He also resides in
Valhalla, where the slain warriors are taken.
Odin's attributes are the
spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, the ring Draupnir, from which
every ninth night eight new rings appear, and his eight-footed steed Sleipnir.
He is accompanied by the wolves Freki and Geri, to whom he gives his food for he
himself consumes nothing but wine. Odin has only one eye, which blazes like the
sun. His other eye he traded for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, and gained
immense knowledge.
On the day of the final battle, Odin will be killed by
the wolf Fenrir. He is also called Othinn, Wodan and Wotan. Some of the aliases
he uses to travel icognito among mortals are Vak and Valtam. Wednesday is named
after him (Wodan)."
The form Odin is Scandinavian, in Germany he was called
Wotan, Wodan or Woden. He's mentionned first in Tacitus' "Germania" where he is
equalled to Mercury.
I think Wotan looks a little bit like Hitler!
Some
esoteric (non nazi) literature on Wotan/Odin: Freya Aswynn, Leaves of Yggdrasil:
A synthesis of runes, gods, magic, feminine mysteries and folklore, 1990;
Jan
Fries: Helrunar, A manual of rune magic 1997
Ralph Metzner: The well of
remembrance. rediscovering the Earth Wisdom Myths of Northern Europa,
2001.
Hanuman: some information about Hanuman.
Monkey
Business is the name of a Marx Brothers
film.
Mercury: Information about the God Mercury.
Page 16 Panel 4: The Knight’s Tour is a
legitimate chess exercise.
Pages 18-19 Top Panel: Here we see John Dee…Austin Osman Spare and Aleister
Crowley.
Spare only gets a small mention in Lawrence Sutin's biography of
Crowley Do What Thou Wilt:
"...the esoteric thinker and artist Austin
Osman Spare, whose brilliant draftsmanship and disturbing sexuality make him one
of the most unique creative figures of the century. Spare joined [Crowley's AA]
in July 1910, though his tenure in the A A was brief; he was not, by nature,
suited to be a disciple Crowley admired Spare highly, both as a writer on magic
and as an artist, and solicited illustrations from Spare for The Equinox;
there was, however, some fractious haggling (conducted through Fuller) over
Spare's fee. For whatever reasons, Spare ultimately spurned Crowley both as a
teacher and as a prospective friend. Nonetheless, one of Spare's drawings,
presumably paid for, hung prominently in Crowley's Equinox
offices."
(pg. 207)
The only other mention of Spare occurs on page 406 in
a remark made by Kenneth Grant.
As Grant later admitted, "I was beginning
to realize that Crowley's demands were unending. As Austin Spare frequently
observed:'Enough is too much!'"
Note on Crowley and chess:
Crowley
was also active in the university Chess Club. In his freshman year, he promptly
triumphed over its president. It was then arranged for him to play H.E. Atkins,
who would go on to become the seven-time amateur champion of England. Atkins
trounced him, and Crowley had a for the first time encountered his decisive
better at chess. Undeterred, Crowley went on to devote two hours a day to the
game by his second year at Cambridge. His frank ambition was to become a world
champion. But during the long vacation of 1897, Crowley visited Berlin while a
major chess conference was underway. The sight of his ultimate ambition promptly
cured him of it:
‘I had hardly entered the room where the masters were
playing when I was seized with what may justly be described as a mystical
experience. I seemed to be looking on at the tournament from outside myself. I
saw the masters-one shabby and blear-eyed; another, in badly fitting would-be
respectable shoddy; a third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest.
These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking admission. ‘There, but for
the grace of God, goes Aleister Crowley,’ I exclaimed to myself with disgust,
and then and there I registered a vow never to play another serious game of
chess.
Do What Thou Wilt : A Life of Aleister Crowley by Lawrence
Sutin pgs 36-37
An article entitled Aleister Crowley: A Life in Chess by CP Ravilious can be
found in the British periodical Chess Monthly (December
1997, volume 62 no 9)
Note that Spare has visual images floating around
him and Dee has letters of the Enochian alphabet floating around him.
Nice
effect of the sky and stars reversing colors from left to right.
Page 18,
panel 2 and page 19, top panel: Note that in the top panel Crowley has no
rook amongs his pieces and that in the lower panel he does.
I asked
JHW3 about this and his reply was as follows:
Actually the word
balloon is covering up some of Crowley's chess pieces and in the bottom panel
some of the pieces are mis-colored. In that bottom panel the angle has changed
slightly enough to not see pieces Crowley has entirely but some of Spare's
pieces are colored as if they were Crowley's. Oops. Good eye. I never even
noticed before that they were colored incorrectly. Oh well.
So there's
one mystery solved. I was hoping it would have something to do with the
lightning struck tower on pg. 20 panel 3.
Crowley had a good reputation as a
chess player. If you want to see for yourself the score for a game he played in
1894 can be found here.
Scroll down to the 4th game.
Page 20 Panel 1: Engravings of Doctor
John Dee
.jpg)
Pages 20 and 21: Note that the middle panels have the sephiroth of the
Kabbalah's tree of life set out in white and black.
Page 21: The Green
sun that makes it's first appearance here will be seen again in the next
issue.
Page 21 Panels 1-2: The planet that looks like it's hitting the
tower appears to be Mars
Page 21
Panel 3: Not sure what those red wolves are supposed to be.
Claire Jordan
writes
the "red wolves" may possibly be intended as dholes, Kipling's "Red
Dog," since in the story of that name the red dogs are bringers of war - though
real dholes are ginger rather than deep red. See Dhole .
Pages
22-23: Sun and snakes appears outside panels again.
Top Panel:
Moore's House of Magic appears once more. Not so sure what Ego, RAYD and CUD and
L32 are meant to mean though.
Middle Panel:
Entire Evil 8 have only
existed 2 weeks
But only 6 of them are named here.
